HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-01 Cristina Holt Support TestimonyFrom: Tina Holt
To: Planning WPC Testimony
Subject: Written Testimony for Sept 3 2026 Windward Planning Comission
Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2026 9:25:04 PM
Attachments: 090326 Testimony of Cristina Holt Bill 170 .pdf
Testimony of Cristina Holt
Hilo, Hawaiʻi
Re: Bill 170, Proposed Zoning Amendment
Windward Planning Commission, September 3, 2026
Aloha Chair and Members of the Windward Planning Commission,
My name is Cristina Holt and I am a Hilo resident and community advocate. I am submitting this
testimony in strong support of Bill 170 and asking the commission to recommend one additional
strengthening change to the definition before returning the bill to the County Council. The
language below closes loopholes in the original Bill 170 and replaces subjective phrasing with
objective, physical criteria that cannot be argued around in court:
"Hyperscale data center means any facility or campus of multiple facilities on contiguous or
adjacent parcels under common ownership or control whose primary purpose is the housing,
operation, or co-location of computer servers, networking equipment, and associated 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 whose
combined electrical demand meets or exceeds 20 megawatts at full build-out, including facilities
commonly described as large-scale, hyperscale, neocloud, and artificial intelligence data
centers and colocation campuses, but not including 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."
The 20 megawatt threshold is not arbitrary. It is the number that national experts, legislators,
and municipalities across the political spectrum have converged on as the meaningful dividing
line between ordinary commercial computing and hyperscale industrial infrastructure. On
Hawaiʻi Island specifically, 20 megawatts represents the continuous electrical demand of roughly
10,000 homes on a grid that already depends on imported fossil fuels.
The campus language closes the multi-building loophole. Without it, a developer builds multiple
smaller facilities on adjacent parcels under common ownership and argues each falls below the
threshold individually. The campus language covers combined electrical demand across all
contiguous parcels under common ownership so that a developer cannot game the definition by
slicing up their footprint.
Hawaiʻi Island is uniquely vulnerable
Every concern mainland communities have raised about data centers applies here, and then
some. Our grid already depends on imported fossil fuels. We already pay the highest electricity
rates in the nation at approximately 40 cents per kilowatt hour, compared to a national average
of around 14 cents. Our water system is closed. What goes into these facilities does not come
back. According to Google's own 2025 Environmental Report, in 2024 Google's data centers
consumed over 7.7 billion gallons of water that never returned to any watershed. We have
thousands of approved but unbuilt homes and businesses already waiting to be served. Our
infrastructure cannot keep up with what we already have.
What we can learn from other communities
Virginia has been the world's largest data center market for over a decade. Commission after
commission approved projects over community objections citing tax revenue. The State
Corporation Commission subsequently approved rate increases totaling $565.7 million in 2026,
leading to monthly bill increases of $11.24 for a typical residential customer. 78% of Virginia
voters now blame data centers for their rising electricity bills.
In Powhatan County, the Planning Commission recommended denial of a $2.7 billion data
center campus in September 2025. The Board of Supervisors approved it anyway, unanimously,
over community opposition. One supervisor said before voting yes: "There is risk, absolutely
there's risk, but the reward significantly outweighs the risk." The community had no mechanism
to stop it once the commission's recommendation was overruled.
A March 2026 Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans oppose AI data centers in their local
area, including 48% who are strongly opposed. This opposition cuts across party lines and
across the urban-rural divide.
The opportunity in front of this commission
Hawaiʻi Island has no operating hyperscale data centers. We have the opportunity to act before
development pressure arrives, and to do so with language strong enough to hold up if it is ever
challenged.
The Cherokee Nation studied this issue for months, surveyed nearly 1,600 citizens, and then
banned hyperscale data centers on their lands, saying these facilities threaten their resources
and their cultural lifeways. Their approach, thorough study followed by decisive action, is the
model we are asking this commission to follow.
Mahalo for your time and for your service to our community.
Cristina Holt
Hilo, Hawaiʻi