HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-20 Valerie Delahaye-Ippolito Testimony
From: Valerie Delahaye-Ippolito
To: Planning LPC Testimony
Cc: Kimball, Heather; Inaba, Holeka; Kagiwada, Jennifer; Villegas, Rebecca; Galimba, Michelle M.; Onishi, Dennis;
Hustace, James; Kierkiewicz, Ashley; Kanealii-Kleinfelder, Matt; Alameda, Christian (Kimo);
generalpla@hawaiicounty.gov; Planning WPC Testimony
Subject: Bill 170 & Planning Department Public Comments
Date: Sunday, September 20, 2026 7:17:35 PM
Aloha Leeward Planning Commission and Planning Department,
My name is Valerie Delahaye-Ippolito, and I am from Kailua Kona. My testimony addresses both the Leeward Planning Commission and the Planning Department because you are asking
the community for input on the same concerns simultaneously.
I am asking our planning commissioners to reject the Planning Department’s recommendation, which prematurely revises regulations before defining what a data center is. Their proposal
currently lacks substantial safeguards. We must work to clarify definitions before defining regulations.
I support the intent of Bill 170, section 1, and urge the Leeward Planning Commission to
recommend a stronger definition of "data center" that distinguishes data-center processing. The original bill defines a data center using subjective language that a developer's attorney can
easily argue around in court. I am asking the commission to recommend an objective, airtight definition grounded in what the facility physically contains and how much power it draws.
Specifically, I am asking the commission to recommend this language:
"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 under common ownership or control whose combined electrical demand meets or exceeds 5 megawatts.
I testify here because my background is in technology and although I am all for progress this
is not progress this is only to enrich the one percents of this country at the expense of our health, natural resources and well being of our communities. AI is responsible for water waste,
pollution and exploiting resources away from the community and small business, enough is enough, Hawaii and Hawaiian have sacrificed enough. Every time we experience strong
weather entire communities are without water or electricity and you are planning to make those already precarious infrastructures more taxed, and unstable. Do the right thing and
protected your communities not the billionaire greed.
Mahalo, Valerie Delahaye-Ippolito Kailua Kona
Valerie Delahaye-Ippolito valerie@mahalohale.com
Office: 808.334.9888 Cell: 323.599.1888
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