We, the undersigned members of the local community, strongly oppose the proposed Hazelmere data centre located on the southern bank of the Helena River. This is not a modest light industrial development but a vast industrial complex of extreme scale, with a frontage of more than 200 metres in continuous length and a height comparable to a 9-storey apartment building. A building of this length and height will dwarf its surroundings and dominate the banks of the Helena River, adjoining parkland, the adjacent school and proposed community areas within the river valley.

This proposal is completely out of keeping with what the community expects in such a sensitive riverside location or envisioned under the Hazelmere Enterprise Area Structure Plan. It will permanently industrialise a river interface that should be treated with care and respect, not overwhelmed by a massive hard-edged building with dozens of exhaust stacks . With an expected life of 50 years or more, this development will impose its visual, environmental and amenity impacts on the area for generations.

A development with 88 diesel generators, constant cooling fans and the capacity to burn around 30,000 litres of fuel per hour is a major industrial installation, bringing continuous noise, heat rejection, air quality concerns and low-frequency noise risks of the kind reported around similar data centres globally. 

The HEASP identifies this precinct as intended primarily for institutional uses associated with education, health, research and recreation with light industry also permitted. The proposed data centre is not "light industrial" and is inconsistent with the planning intent. The proposal is an inappropriate industrial-scale development on the Helena River foreshore. By reason of its scale, bulk, visual prominence and permanence, the proposal would overwhelm the landscape, materially diminish local amenity, and impose a long-term industrial presence on a sensitive and highly valued riverside environment, setting an unacceptable precedent for further incompatible development in the area.

This proposed development is fundamentally incompatible with the character, environmental values and reasonable community expectations for this area, and it should be unequivocally refused.