HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-20 Kau'i Young Support
From: kauiyoung
To: Planning LPC Testimony
Subject: Support Bill 170 with a Better Definition
Date: Sunday, September 20, 2026 7:13:21 PM
Aloha kākou:
My name is Kauʻi Young. I am a kamaʻāina of Keālia, and I am submitting written testimony
in support of Bill 170 and asking the Planning Commission to recommend additional strengthening changes before sending it back to the County Council.
I support the intent of Bill 170 Section 1.
However, Bill 170's current language uses subjective phrases like "industrial-scale operation"
and "beyond that typically accessory or incidental to office, commercial, or public institutional uses." Those phrases don't set a clear line, and a well-resourced developer's attorney can argue
around them either way. I'm asking the Commission to recommend a clear, objective definition of "data center," distinct from the county's existing “data processing facility"
definition.
I am in favor of the following proposed definition:
‘“Data center” means a facility, or two or more facilities on contiguous or adjacent parcels
under common ownership or control, whose primary purpose is housing, operating, or co-locating computer servers and associated cooling, power, and support infrastructure, and
whose combined electrical demand at full build-out meets or exceeds 5 megawatts.’”
I'm also asking the Commission to reject the Planning Department's recommendation to add
smaller data centers as a permitted use. That change would open a legal pathway for data centers here rather than close one, with no discretionary review of grid impact, water, noise, or
anything else.
He moku, he waʻa; he waʻa, he moku. Our island, our planet, and our future deserve an
immediate ban on the building of data centers in our county, or anywhere else for that matter, as far as I’m concerned.
The science and the data regarding the ecological disasters that these data centers contribute to across the continent are overwhelming proof that the irrevocable costs of data centers far
outweighs any proposed benefits.
In fact, the costs are already here in Hawaiʻi nei. Hotter-than-ever temperatures, a planet
dangerously overheated to the detriment of all. The 3 devastating weather systems (2 of which landed as hurricanes) that moved through the paeʻāina just recently are direct and glaringly
deadly consequences of investing in the fossil-fuel industry, which data centers undeniably feed into. To invest in data centers is to invest in our own destruction, and we cannot allow
that, period.
Our island's closed water system, fossil-fuel-dependent grid, and already strained
infrastructure cannot support data centers. Please recommend the strongest possible version of this bill to the County Council.
Me ke aloha ʻāina pau ʻole,
Kauʻi Young
Keālia, Hawaii
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