HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-03 Sarah Vinnedge Support Testimony
From: SARAH VINNEDGE
To: Planning WPC Testimony
Subject: No Data Centers on Big island Please
Date: Thursday, September 3, 2026 7:32:48 AM
My name is Sarah Vinnedge and I live in Captain Cook. I am writing in srong support
of Bill 170 and asking the Windward Planning Commission to recommend one
additional srengthening change before sending it back to the County Council. ... The
original Bill 170 language uses subjective phrases like "indusrial-scale operation" and
"beyond that typically accessory or incidental to ofce, commercial, or public
insitutional uses" that a well-resourced developer's attorney can argue around. The
defnition below replaces that subjectivity with objective physical criteria and a clear
20 megawatt threshold that cannot be disputed. Cooling, power, and support
infrasructure, including but not limited to servers, network equipment and appliances,
telecommunications equipment, data sorage sysems, sysems for monitoring and
managing infrasructure performance, environmental controls, fre protection sysems,
security sysems, electrical subsations, 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 defnition 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
artifcial intelligence data centers and colocation campuses. This term does not
include telecommunications facilities regulated under Section 25-4-12, hospital or
government data sysems, university educational and research facilities, or business
ofces in which servers are incidental to the primary use." I’ve lived for 69 years and
have used minimal AI. Insant knowledge is not a necessity at the expense of our
resources. On a limited budget, my electricity bill needs to say as it is. Water here on
our island is crucial. We cannot sacrifce power and water so that our children and
grandchildren have to read a little to fnd answers, rather than asking a quesion to
their phone. Our island's closed water sysem, fossil-fuel dependent grid, and already
srained infrasructure cannot support hyperscale data centers. Please recommend
the sronges possible version of this bill to the County Council. Mahalo,
Sarah Vinnedge
Captain Cook