With the Metro Outer Development Assessment Panel (MODAP) decision to be made on Tuesday next week, residents said they were hoping for an assessment that seriously considered the locality of the proposal.

Swan residents Randal Swick and Lindsay Baxter drove around Perth to visit the various data centres that were already established.

“Standing there on the city street, you could definitely hear the vibrations, and this is only a part of the size of the one proposed for Hazelmere,” Ms Baxter, a former state urban planner and data centre opponent, said.

“The community is gravely concerned about the data centre’s approval and its proximity to the Helena River.

“We certainly think planning processes here need to catch up to the reality of these applications because as with the data centre being built in Northam, we also don’t think a warehouse is an appropriate classification for a data centre.

“New South Wales has identified what these data centres are and have changed their definitions for it.

“Now we need to catch up.”

Mr Swick, who is a mechanical engineer, said the City of Swan’s opposition appeared to rest only on noise, rather than the broader planning issues of size, scale, amenity, fuel storage, power infrastructure, heat rejection, emissions, environmental impact and proximity to sensitive land uses.

“Despite these issues, the city’s recommendation appears to rely largely on conditions that the DAP could impose if it were minded to approve the application,” he said.

“The City of Swan RAR reaches the correct broad outcome by recommending refusal, however, it does so on an unduly narrow and incomplete basis.”

Mr Swick said the RAR should have identified multiple additional and independent grounds justifying refusal, rather than confining the recommendation to reject on noise grounds alone.

“(This includes) the amount of diesel fuel to be stored on site, despite the proposal including 88 backup generators,” he said.

“(There is also) the proposed 120MW substation, which would be more than four times the size of the existing Hazelmere substation across the road, yet appears to have no detailed plans whatsoever.”

Mr Swick said the claim that city staff would expect no surrounding properties would be affected by heat emissions by the centre ignored that air-conditioning and cooling systems did not make heat disappear.

“They move heat from inside the building to outside the building,” he said.

“The heat generated by the computing equipment must be expelled, and in this case it is expelled into the local environment.”

“The claim that the surrounding areas won’t be affected by heat, because the data centre is air-conditioned, is unsubstantiated by any facts.

“The facility will emit about 120MW of heat which is a tremendous amount and the effect on the local area must be studied to know its effect.”

Helena River catchment group deputy chair Louise Stelfox is calling on MODAP members to visit the site before deciding.

“Given the sensitive location of this proposal, adjacent to a school and 40m from a river corridor, I consider that it’s vital that MODAP members visit the site prior to considering the application,” she said.

“Has a site meeting been scheduled for this DAP development application?”

Ms Baxter said an answer from DAP confirmed no formal site visit was scheduled however they said individual members could investigate.

Ms Stelfox said the community hoped to see a full appendix of 1829 community objections received via Swan Engage in the City of Swan’s RAR to MODAP but were disappointed it was missing.

“The panel (uses this)  as the basis for their determination,” Trillion Trees coordinator Kate Herren said.

“This development will be just 200m from our community nursery and Mandoon Bilya Restoration Project.

“On Tuesday 19 May 2026 (at 9.30am), a five person panel will consider the development application at the City of Swan council chambers in Midland.”

Mr Swick said the proposal should be assessed holistically rather than in fragments as major infrastructure elements could change the true scale of the development.

“The development application lacks the detail required in regard to fuel storage, power supply, sound emission, heat emission, and bulk and scale, that is required for a proper assessment, and the lack of that information is grounds for refusal,” he said.

“The fuel storage for 120MW backup generators and where it needs to go would require just as much scrutiny as the data centre itself.

“Sometimes approval is given on projects by the DAP under the condition certain regulations and laws are followed with minor changes in plans.

“They might say, ‘We’ll approve it under the condition you have to change the colour of the guttering or replace this many trees or parking bays that were removed so the shire is happy with it’.

“Industrial tables indicate the required fuel to be about 700,000L per day for a 120MW backup facility.

“One would expect them to have at least two or three days of fuel stored on-site.

“The proposal would be more of a fuel depot than a ‘warehouse’ as it is currently classified by the city.

“These are major parts of the development that need to be assessed as whole, not in parts.

“You shouldn’t just get approval for the data centre building, and once that’s there, try and get approval for a fuel storage facility and a substation next.

“That’s approval creep, and a divide and conquer strategy.

“They should all be heard together.”