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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN PCPLUED 2026/07/07 (2024-2026) Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use, and Economic Development 26th Session Hawai`i County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai`i July 7, 2026 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Policy Committee on Planning,Land Use, and ORDER: Economic Development was called to order at 11:01 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo,by Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Vice Chair Mr. James E. Hustace,Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba,Member Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball,Member Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi,Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas,Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak on Bill 170 (Comm. 940) and came forward when called by the Chair: Karen Foster: In opposition. Noelle Lindenmann: In support. Cory Harden: In support. Charmaine Banther: In support. Tanya Yamanaka Aynessazian: In support and comment. Christopher(Topher)Dean: In support. PCPLUED-26 July 7,2026 Chuck Flaherty: Comment. (Rep. Sierra Club, Hawai`i) Kenneth Honma: Comment. Kalei Kailikini: Comment. Cathy Kohen: In support. Susan Roberts Emery: In support. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Mr. Clerk, if we could move on to Order of the Day. BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances. Bill 170: AMENDS CHAPTER 25, ARTICLE 1, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO ZONING Distinguishes data centers from data processing facilities for zoning and land use purposes; defines "data center." Reference: Comm. 940 Intr.by: Council Member Kimball CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Council Member, a motion please. Motion to Refer: Ms. Kimball moved to refer Bill 170 to the Planning Director and Planning Commissions. Seconded by Ms. Kagiwada. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Council Member Kimball. And I just want to note that our Planning Director Jeff Darrow is here,in chambers, to answer any questions folks might have. Council Member. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, I mentioned his subject when we were having our conversations about the General Plan. The last few years now,it has been on the areas of discussion at the national level for the Environment, Energy &Land Use Committee. In fact,the Chair of the committee is a Council Member and what they call Data Center Alley in Loudoun County, Virginia. There are white papers available on the NACo (National Association of Counties) website that kind of speaks to the pros and cons of Data Center and Development. I want to be clear that there are perceived pros and cons, right? Page 2 PCPLUED-26 July 7,2026 There are benefits from the perspective of tax revenue of potential jobs. But in evaluating some of the negative impacts as were mentioned here; effect on grid prices, electricity prices for residents, the use of water, the noise, concerns about Data Centers committing and getting entitlements to areas, municipalities,building infrastructure, and then,those data centers not being developed. All of those things have led me to a position where I don't think they belong here in Hawai`i County. What I will say, I get the comment, well, that's never going to happen here, anyway. Land is expensive, energy is expensive. The industry has a stated goal of data centers in every state; 3,000 across the nation. So,I've told the story before about sitting next to somebody in the Chamber of Commerce, and I'm like, "What are you doing?" Oh, I'm looking for places to put data centers. It's not something that we shouldn't anticipate happening. And this bill is very simple because of the structure of our-Chapter 25, the Zoning Code. Section 25-4-4 is clear that anything that is not listed, as a permitted use is by default prohibited. And what I want to make sure is clear is that is sort of the standard process across the country with respect to zoning codes. And that has been tested in Federal Court and has been upheld. To require identification of every possible prohibited use could actually be something that unintentionally allows new or unforeseen land uses to be allowed because they were not strictly prohibited. So,it's always been this sort of affirmative thing. It's a listed permitted use. As far as the definition,the definition of a data center, that comes from the National Association of Counties' work around data centers. I am certainly open to more specificity, more detail,more clarification. And I think we can let the Planning Commissions sort of elucidate what might be necessary in that regard. I don't want to be so specific with it that we unintentionally fail to capture some things that come in. But just look for my colleagues' support. I've also asked Corporation Counsel Campbell to be here to speak a little bit about this structuring of the Zoning Code and why we do it this way. Any of other members have questions about that? But part of this too, is to build this legislative history from the Legislative Branch, the commissions that provide that basis of decision-making for future planning commissions. Because as Mr. Flaherty mentioned, this does not prohibit someone from going through and attempting to do a Special Use Permit,which would probably most likely, as you mentioned, go through BLNR(Board of Land and Natural Resources) land use; all of those other things. But I wanted to Page 3 PCPLUED-26 July 7,2026 make clear that is another piece of this,but this bill does not address. I'll leave it there and happy to answer any questions, CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for that overview. I'm going to open up to members of this body to ask any questions of the introducer or Planning Director or Corporation Counsel. Members? Council Member Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you,Heather. I mean, you had great intentions with the General Plan in the potential amendment you brought forward there and took a lot of heat because of the confusion related to that. So, thank you for bringing this next piece of legislation forward. I just want to clarify some information I received from a reliable source, that the jobs related to data centers are only at the building stage; not while they're up and running. So, it's kind of a false pretense that they would provide long-term employment opportunities. Also, as we look to the future and our responsibility for seven generations, I firmly believe that it is in our best interest to look back to and reconnect with the wisdom of our host culture and circular economics. And data centers is almost exactly the opposite of that. And it's relinquishing our autonomy as humans. Historical knowledge when it comes to kupuna, when it comes to EQ (Emotional Intelligence),when it comes to personal connectivity and relationship, and conversation. I don't know about you guys,but I've seen enough movies even from decades ago about artificial intelligence, and it turning, and all the different things. And I probably have 90,000 photos on my cell phone. I am a photo taker. I share with other people. I would gladly give that up if it meant that we continue to be able to abide within the capacity of our island's natural resources. Thank you to the testifier who had the specifics to give that very detailed comparison of how much energy and how much water that it would entail for a data center. So thank you, Council Member Kimball, for bringing this legislation forward. I, as all members, I think on the Council,received some emails from concerned constituents who I believe had worked closely with you on this legislation and a request for additional amendments to strengthen the verbiage utilized this; reduced loopholes, and kind of—thinking about the lies. Lawyers make a lot of money to argue about anything, right? Page 4 PCPLUED-26 July 7,2026 So,it can be black and white. And if you have somebody with enough money to argue it,they can take it to court and wear people down. And you have humans, and you know, you have all these different factors. So, I guess I am interested to hear from my colleagues and from the introducer about your openness for those amendments. I've read through them; they seem very clear, very concise,very specific, and close any potential loopholes. So,I don't have the amendment ready here on the floor today,but as we talk about it in Committee, I was considering bringing forth the amendment. But I kind of wanted to feel the temperature of my colleagues and also,the introducer. I yield at this time. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for that. Because this is an amendment to Chapter 25, we are required by our Code to forward this particular Bill for Ordinance to the Planning Director and Planning Commissions for their review and recommendation. I would certainly encourage members of this body and even the public to identify amendments that they would like to see included during that process MS. KIMBALL: Stream is down. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Oh, stream is down. Okay. We are in recess. Recess: At 11:38 a.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 11:39 p.m. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: We are out of recess. Back in session at 11:39 a.m. Just want to reiterate, we're forwarding this to the Planning Director and Planning Commissions. If there are amendments that are being suggested during that review process,they will be sent back to the Council as recommendations and then when we get this bill back here in Committee, at that point, we can make amendments to the bill. This just kind of gets the conversation started. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you for bringing this forward,because I know it's an object of some anxiety and definitely the kind of resources that a data center requires is just not appropriate for the kind of resources that we have on this island. And so,I actually would like to perhaps talk with the Planning Director around that, if you wouldn't mind coming up, Mr. Darrow. A number of testifiers talked about Data Center as a word and a definition. And it is sort of or almost like a convention that we're using. We all know Page 5 PCPLUED-26 July 7,2026 what we mean by that. But it isn't very clear because there's data center and it could be very many different things. And it could change a lot in the future. It could be a different name; it could be different things happening there. So,I'm interested at looking at it just from the resource perspective. If a facility came forward that uses the kinds of resources of water and electricity,no matter what its name was, I assume that it would be looked at very carefully and potentially rejected on that basis alone of us not having those kinds of water resources available. But I wanted to ask our Planning Director about that. (Note: At this time, Planning Director Jeff Darrow came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. DARROW: Aloha, Chair Kierkiewicz, Vice Chair and members of the Hawai`i County Council. Jeff Darrow with the Planning Department. As of this point, I'm not aware of any data center coming before the Planning Department requesting a permit. Typically, if they're located in an Industrial Zone or Commercial Zone; other than Agricultural or Residential, they would not trigger a use permit or a special permit. They would trigger a plan approval. As of this point, there's only been talk,you know,people reaching out; asking, you know,is this permitted in the Zoning Code is this type of use. The one that I'm familiar with that somebody was talking about was actually a—I mean you hear the words data center, and you're thinking,the mainland style data center. But this was something very small. In fact, they were proposed to be operating out of a storage container or two. So, at this point, we haven't seen anything to the level that you know, we've seen people inquiring but not coming in. And if they did, something like this bill would definitely bring awareness as to the difference between what our Code calls a Data Processing Facility and a Data Center. As mentioned by Council Member Kimball,regardless of what this bill does,if somebody were to come in and then State Land Use Agricultural District,they could apply for a Special Permit. That would require a public hearing, which I'm sure would generate a lot of interest going forward. I don't personally know enough. This is a learning experience for me. I think for everybody, I know just personally,that I think we're all affected by data centers in the sense of our everyday use of our phones and photographs as mentioned. Page 6 PCPLUED-26 July 7,2026 The use of ChatGPT and AI(Artificial Intelligence) and whatnot. I mean, I think it is very much a part of everyone's lives right now,but that doesn't mean that we have to allow it all over our County. So,it would be good to get direction from both the Council and the Planning Commissions as to where we go forward with this type of bill. MS. GALIMBA: Thank you. I wanted to really ask around the process, or if the Planning Department process addresses water use specifically for a proposed project. MR. DARROW: I apologize for not addressing that. Right now, you know, our process is typically, our plan approval process; you would look at what our Zoning Code addresses, which would be,is it a permitted use in the zoning district? Does it meet setbacks? Does it meet height requirements? There's nothing in our code right now that really addresses the issue that you're bringing up, water consumption, the amount of electricity. If it was a change of zone; that would be different. You know, at that point, we do look at water. We look at infrastructure; we look at those types of things. Typically,if the area is zoned already, you're just looking at meeting the requirements for plan approval. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks very much. I yield. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: I just wanted to take a brief moment to respond to Council Member Villegas' question around openness to amendments, which I understand we're not going to do today; and we'll do this when it comes back from the Planning Commissions. But you know, definitions, certainly probably the most important part of the Code. And so, when we look at the language of the definition of a Data Center; and Director Darrow mentioned, you know, something auxiliary,for example, our Civil Defense Call Center might need a Data Center associated with this type of processing,but it's going to be on a very small scale, and it's incidental to the use as Civil Defense. We're really talking about industrial scale manufacturing type thing. So, as best we can refine that definition, certainly open to that. Some of the other testimony was really around,like, we need to specifically say, this is prohibited. I tried to explain briefly there,but that is not the way to go. It is legally defensible to have it not listed as a permitted use,but if we start trying to list prohibited uses, that gets us into the problem of not Page 7 PCPLUED-26 July 7,2026 having a comprehensive list of everything that's prohibited. So, that I don't support. Kind of getting along Council Member Galimba's line of questioning. You know, is there an opportunity to sort of pre-identify some of those conditions that should be reviewed and considered if these were to go through a process of plan approval,use permit, or special use permit. That, I'm still trying to work out, and that's why it's not included in this bill. It would be atypical for that to exist in code. And so, maybe it lives somewhere else. And that's what I'm trying to figure out kind of independently of this. But this is kind of a very direct thing,because there is concern that our definition of data processing facilities is too similar and could be interpreted as a permitted use for data centers. I'll leave it there and ask for my colleagues' support to approve it. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Council Member Kaneali`i- Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: To the maker, there are two data centers or processing centers here on the island already. Does this affect those? And I'm not sure which definition they fall into. MS. KIMBALL: There's really only one at the University of Hawai`i at Hilo that is in traditional terms considered a data center. But it is auxiliary to the functions of the university,right? It is incidental. It is not like manufacturer scale and its sole purpose is as a data center. And that's why, it would not be included under this definition. Plus, you know, we can't go retroactive with these entitlements. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, and then the other in Kawaihae? Okay, I guess my assumption would be that the Kawaihae one—well,I shouldn't make assumptions for that. Let's say that there probably is a good presence of data centers in coordination with our military on island,I would expect that, given that this is the middle of the pacific, and we have a large presence here from the military. How does this overlap with facilities for military use, should there be any? I guess the underlying question for that is can we,because that's Federal. MS. KIMBALL: They're always going to have superiority in terms of jurisdiction. That's just how the order of government works. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so then, a County law then couldn't supersede federal ability? Page 8 PCPLUED-26 July 7,2026 MS. KIMBALL: I think generally speaking, they are still expected at some level, to honor and respect our Land Use Codes. But ultimately,they have that ability to work within that system if they have disagreements. Maybe the Director can respond to that. That's pretty typical MR. DARROW: I apologize, what was that last part? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Just thinking on, if you look up data centers in Oahu, there's a number of them,mainly revolving around military use. It's not an assumption, it's just it is what it is. We also have Hawaiian Telcom data centers. I mean, you have data centers that do different things for different parts of our community. Some of which we all may use, and not know that we use it. The question I pose to Council Member Kimball is, you know, should the Federal Government come in with the data center or proposition of a use similar to what we're providing in this bill. Can County laws supersede Federal abilities? MR. DARROW: They cannot. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay,that's about what I expected. Other than that,Ms. Kimball, thank you for bringing this forward. You brought it forward during the General Plan discussion, and the community output; our finer resources here on Hawai`i Island really do point to this being not the best place for data centers. While you could argue that we have the land, and some could argue that we actually have the water to do so. I go back to we're in the middle of the Pacific. So, making us the Data Center. A home for data centers doesn't really make sense because we're like the last end of the data cable, you know, we're not the middle or the big branch on the mainland, United States. So, appreciate the bill. Look forward to seeing what happens at the Planning Commissions. You commissioners are going to have a lot of testimony. Good luck. I yield. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Council Member Kagiwada. MS. KAGIWADA: Thank you, Chair. Just want to say,I appreciate the Chair's recommendation that people who are passionate about this subject do follow the Planning Commissions and attend those meetings and submit testimony there as well. I'll be following it and watching; looking forward to our discussions when this comes back from the Planning Commissions. Thank you, I yield. Page 9 PCPLUED-26 July 7,2026 CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Anyone else. Seeing none, there is a motion on the floor to forward Bill 170 to the Planning Director and Commissions for review and recommendation. All those in favor please say, "aye." Any opposed? Vote on Motion The vote on the motion to refer Bill 170 to the Planning to Refer: Director and the Planning Commissions pursuant to (Approved) Section 25-2-43(b), Hawai`i County Code was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba,Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kimball, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz—8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Onishi— 1. Excused: None. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: We are adjourned at 11:54 a.m. Thank you. ADJOURN- There being no further business Chair Kierkiewicz adjourned the meeting MENT: at 11:54 a.m. Approved: 91jV 5(_11 2 (2026 Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair (Date) Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use, and Economic Development AK/dt Page 10