Have you used artificial intelligence (AI) recently? The surge in AI and cloud computing use drives demand for data centres.
A March 2025 article on commercialrealestate.com noted “The use of artificial intelligence, along with cloud computing, will double demand for new data centres, with an extra 175 new facilities needed by 2030, according to an industry report”.
In April 2025, some Lane Cove residents received community newsletters about the two new data centres. One will be located at 12 Mars Road Lane Cove (being called Project Mars), and one at 6 – 8 Julius Avenue North Ryde. The North Ryde data centre is not far from the Lane Cove River and close to the Lane Cove/North Ryde Council borders.
In June 2021, the State and Regional Development SEPP was amended to temporarily allow more warehouses and data centres to be assessed as state-significant development (SSD). When a project is a state-significant development, local councils are not involved in determining a data centre project, a local council can only provide their feedback.
Although including data centres as SSD’s was considered a temporary measure to stimulate construction and support NSW’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the temporary measure has not been revoked.
As a first step, an organisation wanting to construct a data centre must request a Secretary’s environmental assessment requirements (SEARs).
SEARs identify what information needs to be included in an environmental impact statement (EIS).
12 Mars Road Lane Cove Data Centre
On 18 March 2025, the Goodman Group lodged a SEARS application to develop a 90MW data centre campus at 12 Mars Road in Lane Cove West. It has been nicknamed Project Mars. You can view the application here.
The site is located in the Lane Cove West Business Park and is bounded by:
North: Mars Road. Further to the north is industrial development.
South: A landscape buffer. Overlooking the Lane Cove Council Depot, for storage of Council vehicles, and the Blackman Park Grounds. Land to the south zoned RE 1 – Public Recreation.
East: A landscape setback of approximately 50m, followed by low density residential development. Land to the east zoned R2 – Low Density Residential.
West: To the west of the site is existing industrial development
Four industrial warehouse buildings on the site will be demolished, and bulk excavation will be conducted to facilitate the construction, fit-out, and 24/7 operation of the Data Centre.
The site is zoned E4 General Industrial, which permits ‘data storage’ use, and includes as its first objective ‘To provide a range of industrial, warehouse, logistics and related land use.
Goodman has commissioned Urbis Social Planning to prepare a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) to support the EIS. In April 2025, residents of streets near the proposed facility received a community newsletter prepared by Urbis that provided an overview of the proposal and outlining the next steps.
Residents have been invited to complete a survey with a closing date of 27th April 2025.
If you would like to have your say on the Project Mars Data Centre the link to the survey is here.
An information session was held in the Lane Cove Plaza on 5th April 2025 and another one will be held on Thursday 10 April 2025, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm in the Lane Cove Plaza. You can also find out further information by emailing [email protected] or calling 1800 244 863.
The newsletter describes the key features of the construction and operation of the Project Mars Data Centre as follows:
“Goodman proposes building and operating a three-storey data centre at 12 Mars Road, Lane Cove West.
The proposal includes:
Site preparation works, which involves:
- Demolition, excavation, and removal of existing structures on-site
- Tree and vegetation clearing
- Bulk earthworks
Construction, fit-out, and operation of a three-storey data centre building. The building will comprise:
- 23 parking spaces
- 2 loading dock spaces
- 2 levels of technical data hall floor space (one basement level)
- 2 level office and amenities building
- Provision of required utilities, including:
- Diesel storage tanks
- Water tanks
- Substations on site
- Landscaping and site servicing.
Vehicle and pedestrian access to the new data centre will be provided via Mars Road.
The data centre would operate 24 hours, 7 days a week if approved. To ensure potential impacts on neighbours are minimised during operation, Goodman will develop an Operational Management Plan, which will outline how the site will be managed.”
The information provided with the SEARS application reveals the building will have a gross floor area of 18,829 sqm, including 2,562 sqm of office and will have a building height of approximately 15 – 25m.
The site is zoned E4 General Industrial, which permits ‘data storage’ use, and includes as its first objective ‘To provide a range of industrial, warehouse, logistics and related land uses.”
6 – 8 Julius Avenue North Ryde
On 2nd April 2025, Willowtree Communications, acting on behalf of ISPT Super Property, published a community newsletter advising locals that they could provide feedback on a proposal to operate a new data centre.
The site was excavated in 2009 as part of another development approval, and is currently vacant.
The proposal includes:
- Site preparation works, including tree clearing (no. of trees to be confirmed)
- Earthworks and additional site retaining
- Infrastructure comprising civil works and utilities servicing
- Construction a data centre, with the following:
- Basement car parking for 115 cars
- 12 data halls across six (6) storeys with 39m height a Julius Avenue with a total capacity of 170 megawatts with upperlevel mechanical equipment and rooftop plant; [ITC note the megawatts in the community newsletter refer to a capacity load of 115.2 mw but the information submitted to the Department of Planning and Housing refers to 170 mw – see table below]
- Six (6) storey office/front of house building
- Six (6) storey generator gantry to rear of data centre
- New Ausgrid precinct-wide Subtransmission Switching Station (STS); • Two (2) new public roads along the western and southern parts of the Site
- Complementary landscaping and offset planting (number of plants to be confirmed)
Although the Julius Avenue Data Centre is located in the City of Ryde Local Government Area, the information provided to the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure notes “The nearest residential development is located approximately 300m to the south-east of the Site on the eastern side of Lane Cove River in Lane Cove North, and 300m to the south-west of the Site on the southern side of Epping Road in North Ryde.”
Locals can provide feedback on the proposal by answering a survey. The survey closes on 23 April 2025. The link to the survey is here.
The survey includes a question asking if you live in the following streets,
- Gilda Street
- Pittwater Road
- Walkers Drive
- Goodlet Close
- Avian Crescent
- Mowbray Road
For further information or direct enquiries/feedback, email [email protected]
You can view the proposal here.
Existing Data Centre in Lane Cove West Business Park
There is already a large data centre based in the Lane Cove West Business Park operated by Airtrunk. When it opened in 2021, Airtrunk noted that the data centre had more than 110 megawatts (MW) of capacity and was to be one of the largest single-campus data centres in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2024, Airtrunk submitted plans to expand its operations in Lane Cove by building and operating a 45 MW data centre next to its current operations. The centre will be a four-story building with a maximum height of 32.68 m, with diesel storage, diesel generators, car parking, and ancillary offices and amenities.
In November 2024 the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure advised the following to Airtrunk’s consultants:
Please note that the Department does not support the development in its current form due to:
- the relationship between the development and the conditions of consent of the existing data centre (SSD-9741);
- construction traffic and noise impacts;
- operational noise impacts; and
- insufficient justification in the Clause 4.6 request to vary height of buildings standard.
Recently, In the Cove published a series of articles on cabling companies that have been digging up verges and footpaths in the Lane Cove Council area to provide cabling to customers at the Airtrunk facility. Airtrunk’s customers and not Airtrunk contracted the cabling companies. You can read more here.
You may have also recently seen Interflow (who are Sydney Water’s contractors). They are undertaking significant work installing pipes to provide more water to the Airtrunk facility. The World Economic Forum has been researching the water usage of data centres and published an article calling for sustainable data centers. The article noted:
“For instance, a 1 megawatt (MW) data centre can use up to 25.5 million litres of water annually just for cooling – equivalent to the daily water consumption of approximately 300,000 people. This water consumption exacerbates water stress, especially in vulnerable regions already facing shortages.”
What Issues Arise with Data Centres Being Located Near Residential Properties?
Pros
Economic Growth: Data centres can stimulate local economies by creating jobs during both construction and operational phases, ranging from construction workers to IT professionals.
Infrastructure Enhancement: Establishing data centres may improve local infrastructure, such as roads, utilities, and telecommunications, benefiting the broader community. For example, the Julius Avenue Data Centre owner has stated they will be building a new road from Julius Avenue to Richardson Place cul-de-sac and pedestrian links to walking tracks.
Increased Security: The stringent security measures implemented by data centres can enhance the overall safety of the surrounding businesses.
Cons
Noise Pollution: Data centres usually have around five sources of noise: servers, employee vehicles and occasional truck deliveries, backup generators, cooling equipment and air handling units. This can impact both residents and local wildlife. Read more here.
Substantial Electricity and Water Consumption: These facilities consume substantial amounts of electricity and water, potentially straining local resources and leading to environmental concerns.
In January 2025 the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils Ltd (WSROC) noted “Data centres produce a huge demand for energy with estimates that up to 15% of Australia’s electricity will be used by data centres by 2030. Since more than half of our electricity is currently generated from coal, our use of the internet, streaming services, artificial intelligence (AI) and ‘cloud’ data storage is collectively contributing to climate change.”
Last year in an Australian Financial Review article Charter Hall chief executive David Harrison was quoted as saying Australia’s energy shortfall was as severe as its housing crisis, and a lack of reliable supply would be a big hurdle to ramping up investment in data centres.
The Lane Cove West area and Lane Cove North areas (and Riverview) have had more power outages in the last couple of years than other parts of Lane Cove. For example, see the power outage in January 2025.
Urban Heat Island Effect: WSROC also noted: “Data centres also generate a lot of heat from high-powered computing machines that need to operate 24/7. The location of data centres and their large physical footprint can exacerbate the Urban Heat Island Effect.”
Health Risks: Diseases such as Legionnaires are associated with air cooling towers. Asthmatics can be impacted by air pollution when diesel backup generation is used during a power outage.
Aesthetic Impact: Data centres’ large, often windowless structures can alter the visual character of residential neighborhoods. At night the red lights of the NextDC data centre in Artarmon can be seen clearly in some parts of the Lane Cove Council Area. The Mars Road Project is above Blackman Park, so it will be interesting to see the overshading diagrams.
Community Concern Can Impact a Data Centre Proposal
In 2021, Microsoft proposed a six-storey, $141 million data centre at 706 Mowbray Road, Lane Cove North (background here).
Residents were concerned about its proximity to residential areas and Willoughby City Council was concerned about a fire risk.
In February 2023, they announced on the project’s website that they would not proceed. However, they did not provide any reasons or information about what would happen at the Lane Cove North Site (as tenants had vacated the building). An article in Data Centre Dynamics noted the following:
“Evans and Partner technology analyst Paul Mason recently said in a note that Australian players such as NextDC have historically been better than Microsoft at getting council approval, thanks to having more local knowledge on how to handle councils and the lead times associated with procuring utilities.” Read the full article here.
The proposed data centres in North Ryde and Lane Cove represent both opportunity and challenge for Sydney’s growing digital ecosystem. While they support critical infrastructure needed for our increasingly digital world, their proximity to residential areas raises legitimate concerns about noise, energy consumption, health impacts, and environmental effects.
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