Developer abandons controversial $1.2b Lane Cove data centre

An artist’s rendering of the ‘Project Mars’ data centre from developer Goodman Group. A planned three-storey, $1.2 billion data centre slated to be built just metres from houses and a public school in Sydney suburb Lane Cove has been scrapped in what one planning group has celebrated as a win for the area. Goodman Group had plans to build Lane Cove’s fifth data centre, given the name ‘Project Mars’ but suddenly pulled their application for the project on Monday, citing changing government policies as a reason. Data centre projects in the area were last week in the spotlight when Greens politician Sarah Hanson-Young posted a video of noise at another Lane Cove data centre site. Ms Hanson-Young, the chair of the Senate Inquiry into AI Data Centres, captioned the Instagram post with: “While the government drags their feet, these AI factories are already here, and already impacting water, energy, noise, and heat in communities across Australia.” Goodman’s head of planning, Guy Smith said the reason they withdrew the development application for Project Mars was because of policy changes since they started making plans in March 2025. MORE: Aus AI boom putting your home at risk Project Ma...