HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-02 Deirdre Roney Support Testimony
From: Deirdre Roney
To: Planning WPC Testimony
Cc: Deirdre Ann Roney
Subject: In Support of Bill 170 pending stronger language defining "Data Center"
Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2026 8:39:56 AM
Aloha Windward Planning Commission,
My name is Deirdre Roney. I live in Holualoa. I support Bill 170. However, please
recommend a better definition of “hyper-scale data center" before sending it back to the
County Council.
The original bill defines a data center using language that a developer's attorney can defeat
in court. Please recommend a legally sound definition grounded in what the facility
physically contains and how much power it draws.
Specifically, I am asking the commission to recommend this language:
“Hyperscale data center” means a facility used for the industrial-scale operation of
computer systems and associated equipment for the processing, computing, transmission,
or dissemination of digital data that requires supporting infrastructure beyond that typically
accessory or incidental to office, commercial, or public and private institutional uses[.],
including 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 and is described as a large-scale, hyperscale, neocloud, and/or
artificial intelligence data center, but not including data processing facilities as defined in
Section 25-1-5, telecommunications facilities regulated under Section 25-4-12, hospital or
government data systems, and university computing educational and/or research facilities,
and those utilizing artificial intelligence as a support to information systems and business
offices in which servers are incidental to the primary use.”
Watching other towns in the continental US fight for clean water and sound pollution after a
hyperscale data center was built in their community is becoming more common as people
experience the impacts of AI hyperscale data centers. Other states have pushed back
because of severe environmental and physical impacts on rural communities. Our land is
young and cannot filter contamination. Current land use significantly impacts our reefs; this
would be catastrophic.
Hyper-scale data centers are a dire threat to ‘āina. Please recommend the strongest
possible version of this bill.
Mahalo,
Deirdre Roney
Holualoa