HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-20 R.A. Culbertson Testimony
From: Robert Culbertson
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: Testimony Bill 170 & Planning Department input
Date: Sunday, September 20, 2026 6:55:45 PM
Aloha Leeward Planning Commission and Planning Department,
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.
First, 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 also note with some chagrin, that it relies on further attenuated input from a mainland
'consultant', paid with our tax dollars. I find that practice troubling in and of itself.)
Next, I do support the intent of Bill 170, section 1, and urge the Leeward Planning Commission to recommend a stronger definition of "data center" that distinguishes it from a
more commonly used term "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 the following 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.
Finally, the scope and adverse impacts on many continental communities is just lately
becoming known as a new kind of threat to both physical infrastructure, and as well, cyber
control and privacy domains, in which humans and their associative cognitive functions are being increasingly usurped and colonized.
In this island community of limited resources and holding on to aloha as a way of being, it's
important to take a stand now and pre-empt any such potential incursion by the looming "mega-machine".
Mahalo, for your time and attention to this matter!
R A Culbertson Honokaa