HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-01 Sierra Club Hawaii Island Group Testimony
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From: on behalf of Moku Loa Hawaii Island Sierra Club
To: Planning WPC Testimony
Subject: Agenda Item #7, Suggested amendment to Bill 170
Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2026 6:08:52 PM
Attachments: WPC testimony 9-3-26 re Bill 170 data centers, D2.docx
Aloha, Please see attached testimony.
Mahalo
Moku Loa (Hawaii Island) Group, Sierra Club
We work hard to advance Sierra Club’s mission to explore, enjoy, and protect the
wild places of the earth; to practice and promote the responsible use of the
earth’s ecosystems and resources; to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful
means to carry out these objectives.
September 2, 2026
Windward Planning Commission c/o County of Hawai’i 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 3 Hilo HI 96720
RE: Proposed amendments to Bill 170, Draft 1 Aloha Chair and Committee Members,
The Sierra Club of Hawai’i, Hawai’i Island Group (HIG) would like to propose an amendment to
Bill 170 to further define and clarify the intended purpose of Bill 170, which is to disallow hyperscale data centers as a county land use. Public testimony during the General Plan Comprehensive Review process made it clear that
there is a significant level of awareness and opposition to large-scale data centers on this island.
This opposition is based on the real world impacts that these large-scale data centers have on public and private infrastructure, public trust resources, and basic quality of life, in cities, towns, and communities throughout the mainland U.S, including violations of the right to quiet enjoyment that is a cornerstone of property rights in the United States.
The legislative intent of Bill 170 is to effectively discourage the development and approval of data centers by defining “data center” as separate and distinct from “data processing facilities”. However, because not all data centers are hyperscale and/or involve artificial intelligence manufacturing, the definition of “data centers” in Bill 170 needs further clarification.
HIG would like to propose the following amendment: SECTION 3. Chapter 25, article 1, section 25-1-5, of the Hawai'i County Code 1983 (2016 Edition, as amended) is amended by adding a definition in subsection (b) to be
appropriately inserted and to read as follows:
"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 utilitizing artificial intelligence as a support to information systems and business offices in which servers are incidental to the primary use.”
Mahalo for this opportunity to testify.