HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-28 HULI PAC SupportFrom:HULI Hawai"i
To:Planning WPC Testimony
Subject:Bill 170: Supporting the intent and asking for amendments
Date:Monday, September 28, 2026 3:21:14 PM
Aloha Windward Planning Commission,
My name is Maki Morinoue, and I am representing HULI PAC.
We support the intent of Bill 170, section 1, and urge the Windward Planning Commission to
recommend a stronger definition of "data center" that distinguishes data-center processing
before sending it to our Hawaiʻi County Council. 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:
SECTION 2. Chapter 25, article 1, section 25-1-5, of the Hawai`i County Code 1983
(2016 Edition, as amended) is amended by amending the definition of “data processing
facility” in subsection(b) to read as follows:
“Data processing facility” means a facility[an establishment] primarily involved in the
compiling, processing, storage, transmission, dissemination and/or maintenance of
documents, records, and other types of information in digital form utilizing a mainframe
computer, servers, and/or networking equipment, including telecommunications facilities,
communication network infrastructure, central offices, switching facilities, internet exchange
facilities, public safety communications facilities, or facilities where data processing
equipment is incidental to the property’s primary use. This term does not include data
centers as defined in Section 25-1-5, general business offices, computer-related sales
establishments, and business or personal services.”
SECTION 3. Chapter 25, article 1, section 25-1-5, of the Hawai’i County Code 1983
(2016 Edition, as amended) is amended by adding a definition in subsection (b) to be
appropriately inserted and to read as follows:
“Data center” means a physical asset [facility] used for the large-scale operation of
computer systems and associated equipment [for the processing, computing, transmission,
or dissemination of digital data] that utilizes graphic processing units and requires
supporting infrastructure beyond that typically accessory or incidental to office, commercial,
or public and private institutional uses. This term includes a single data center location and
any campus of multiple locations under common ownership or control with a combined
electrical demand that meets or exceeds 5 megawatts. This term does not include data
processing facilities as defined in Section 25-1-5, hospital or government data systems, and
university computing, educational and/or research facilities, and business offices in which
servers are incidental to the primary Use.”
Data centers are destroying communities across the continental U.S. Towns in Arizona,
Iowa, Texas, and North Carolina are currently in litigation over hyperscale AI data centers,
fighting for clean water, clean air, and protection from industrial pollution. These rural
communities learned too late: once a data center arrives, groundwater contamination, noise
pollution, and massive electrical strain follow.
Hawaiʻi Island cannot afford that mistake.
Our land is geologically young and porous; it cannot filter industrial contamination. A single
data center spill reaches our aquifer immediately and poisons our reefs. We already face
military, industrial, and urban contamination as a measurable threat. Adding hyperscale AI
facilities means exponential pollution to the only water source we have.
Our reefs are already degraded by tourism and climate stress. We urge you to recommend
the strongest possible version of this bill. Let's prevent this.
Hawai’i's natural resources are not for sale.
Mahalo,
Maki Morinoue
HULI PAC, a Hawai’i Island grassroots organization
--
"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but
on building the new." ~ Socrates
HULI PAC - P.O. Box 168, Holualoa, HI. 96725 - www.hulihi.com