HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-01 Julia Marrack Support TestimonyFrom: Julia Marrack
To: Planning WPC Testimony
Subject: Support of Bill 170
Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2026 8:44:15 PM
Aloha,
My name is Julia Marrack and I live in Waimea on Hawai’i Island. 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 likely argue around. The definition below replaces that
subjectivity with objective physical criteria and a clear 20 megawatt
threshold that cannot be disputed.
The specific language I am asking the commission to recommend:
"Hyperscale data center means any facility or campus of facilities 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 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.
Despite what corporations are claiming, data centers do not give back to
the communities they are built in, but rather extract and ruin for the gain of
a very few. We already struggle with resources, water, electricity, and it’s
not pono to allow data centers to be built here when there is clear
evidence of the immensely harmful impact they have on people and the
environment.
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,
Julia Marrack
Waimea, Hawai’i Island