HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-03 Samuel Yamada Support Testimony
From: Samuel Yamada
To: Planning WPC Testimony
Subject: Ban the data centers
Date: Thursday, September 3, 2026 6:37:38 AM
My name is Samuel Yamada and | live in Kailua,Kona. I am writing in strong support of Bill
170 and asking the Windward Planning Commission to recommend one additional strengthening change before sending it back to the County Council.
The original Bill 170 language uses subjective phrases like "industrial-scale operation" and "beyond that typically accessory or incidental to office, commercial, or public institutional
uses" that a well-resourced developer's attorney can argue around. The definition below replaces that subjectivity with objective physical criteria and a clear 20 megawatt threshold
that cannot be disputed. Cooling, power, and support infrastructure, including but not limited to servers, network
equipment and appliances, telecommunications equipment, data storage systems, systems for monitoring and managing infrastructure performance, environmental controls, fire protection
systems, security systems, electrical substations, generators, and redundant power supplies; and which requires or is designed to require 20 megawatts or more of electrical capacity at full
build-out. This definition includes a single facility and any campus of multiple facilities on contiguous or adjacent parcels under common ownership or control whose combined electrical
demand meets or exceeds 20 megawatts. This term includes facilities commonly described as large-scale, hyperscale, neocloud, and artificial intelligence data centers and colocation
campuses. This term does not include telecommunications facilities regulated under Section 25-4-12, hospital or government data systems, university educational and research facilities, or
business offices in which servers are incidental to the primary use."
Our island's closed water system, fossil-fuel dependent grid, and already strained infrastructure cannot support hyperscale data centers. Please recommend the strongest possible
version of this bill to the County Council. Mahalo, Samuel Yamada, Kailua,Kona!