Behind WL’s 6-3 zoning vote clearing the way for SK hynix’s $3.87B chip site
Seven hours in, neighbors call vote a done deal. Mayor calls it a starting point to welcome SK hynix … and to hold the South Korean company accountable for what it’s promised West Lafayette
As neighbors across the northern edge of the city lobbied for a pause to find a better spot for SK hynix’s $3.87 billion advanced chip packaging facility, farther from residential subdivisions, a majority on the West Lafayette City Council boiled an industrial rezoning request down to a matter of one of two inevitable locations, separated by one road.
In a marathon session that stretched nearly seven hours into early Tuesday morning, the city council voted 6-3 to rezone 121 acres north of Kalberer Road, between Yeager Road and County Road 50 West, from residential to industrial.
The vote, coming at 1:25 a.m. Tuesday in a debate that started just after 6:30 p.m. Monday, will give the South Korean semiconductor giant its preferred location in the Purdue Research Park for a 340,000-square-foot R&D and manufacturing facility to assemble high-bandwidth memory chips crucial to a growing AI computing market by 2028.
“Tonight's request isn't just another development,” Iris O’Donnell Bellisario, a city council member, said ahead to the vote. “It's a transformative, multi-billion-dollar investment that promises 800 to 1,000 high quality jobs right here. Greater Lafayette Commerce rightfully called this a pivotal moment for our region to even be considered for a project with this magnitude and national significance. Is an extraordinary opportunity, and I hope that this fact does not fall on deaf ears.”
The decision came on a night that started with overflow crowds spilling on the Chauncey Avenue, firefighters tightly regulating capacity after people filled council chambers and three community rooms in city hall, with a combined seating listed at 351.
With residents cycling one-in/one-out for hours, 90 people testified three minutes at a time. Three-quarters of those were pleading with city council members that there were too many risks and not enough known about processes, waste, emissions and the sheer scope of SK hynix’s project to make it suitable so close to Arbor Chase, University Farm, Amberleigh Village and other nearby residential blocks.
Repeated frequently, in so many words: SK hynix was a great get for the region and for Indiana – just not where it was looking to go.
“It may be technically true that your vote tonight is about moving this from one side of the street to the other,” Tyler Hoskins, a West Lafayette resident, told council members. “But I stood outside with hundreds of my fellow citizens to get in here, and I've waited several hours to make this comment, and there's people waiting in these overflow rooms right now. One hypothesis is that they're really upset about the north versus the south side of the street. Another hypothesis is that this is about something larger than that.”
“Quite honestly, I’m angry,” Stacey Alleyn Smythe, a West Lafayette resident, said. “We have to ask ourselves, and you have to ask yourself, do we want to continue to be pimped out by the university? … I’m asking you to think about how we want to define ourselves and how we are already defined and how that will change if we become a factory town, which this is just the beginning of.”
SK hynix publicly announced plans to come to West Lafayette in April 2024, in a ceremony at the Purdue Memorial Union Ballrooms where the deal was hailed as the biggest economic development investment in Indiana’s history up until that point. (The $3.87 billion plans were topped shortly after that in a flurry of big-priced deals.) Purdue and state leaders considered SK hynix’s arrival as a fundamental first piece in what’s envisioned as a larger “Silicon Heartland.”
It’s likely SK hynix could have begun construction on its initial location – 90 acres a quarter-mile north of Kalberer Road, on the west side of Yeager Road, dubbed “Site A” and already zoned for heavy industry – until it indicated a preference in 2025 to build on the 121 acres just to the east, where the ground was zoned for residential use. That became known as “Site B.”
That rezoning request triggered community pushback that stunned PRF and SK hynix, putting both on the ropes.
On March 19, the Area Plan Commission voted 9-5 recommending against industrial zoning for the site, given heated protest from nearby residents, including some neighbors who were deep into chip research at Purdue who testified that no semiconductor facility could be safe so close to housing.
That led to a scramble over the past seven weeks, as SK hynix held community meetings – three public ones between April 11 and May 3 and more held in private settings, based on accounts from community members and public officials who were invited over the past several weeks – to make their case for a project aiming at 1,000 jobs, with another 3,000 for direct suppliers.
Meanwhile residents crammed to learn about advanced chip packaging, collected more than 2,600 signatures on petitions and planted yard signs calling for no heavy industry next door.
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At Monday’s council meeting Purdue Research Foundation and SK hynix officials said that there were no other locations under consideration for the $3.87 billion facility. Hours earlier, SK hynix and PRF had announced a proposed compromise, offering to downzone Site A to office/research uses to soften the industrial feel of that part of the Purdue Research Park, as long as the city council vote to tie industrial zoning to Site B.
“We pride ourselves on choosing sites for our facilities that align with our values,” NK Kim, senior vice president of SK hynix West Lafayette, told city council members Monday.
“And, when our plant becomes operational, there will be a large number of locally hired employees working there. They will become not just our colleagues but also our family members and valued assets,” Kim said. “Which is why, it is inconceivable that we would place them in harm’s way by exposing them to an unsafe working environment.”
Kim reiterated Monday night that SK hynix would return to Site A, on the west side of Yeager Road, if the city council vote didn’t come through.
Doubts lingered, though, as company officials didn’t come up with lists of chemicals expected to be used at the facility – Nohyuk Park, director of SK hynix’s environmental team, said it was too early in the planning stages to know that – who the company’s expected 143 suppliers would be and again had to explain that an environment assessment would happen only after the site and zoning were locked in.
Dr. Seema Kengeri, Tippecanoe County’s health officer, asked whether chemicals used in SK hynix’s facilities would be proprietary, leaving local officials to wonder what to test. She said she was concerned about what PFAS – known as “forever chemicals” – might be part of production and then in the waste stream. And she said she still had questions about air emissions.
“We have a lot of physicians who are here today,” Kengeri said. “We all share very common concern about the health and wellness of our community, and I strongly urge to the council members to please ponder on all of these issues before we come to a decision.”
Karl Janick, a surgeon who lives in University Farm, said health data wasn’t readily produced about SK hynix’s plans at the site.
“I guess before we invite this uncertainty here, we should be confident we’re not putting West Lafayette children at the forefront of this experiment,” Janick said.
Several speakers noted the absence of some of the Purdue professors and others who had helped been part of testimony during the APC meeting and in earlier community meetings, more than hinting that pressure had been applied by the university to get them to stand down. (Publicly, Purdue President Mung Chiang has declined requests to talk about the rezoning request, other than telling faculty on the University Senate two weeks ago that “much of the misunderstanding and misinformation, I was told, has been clarified by many other faculty and students.”)
Bruno DeMarco, who lives in University Farm, was blunt.
“I’m surprised they’re not chest-bumping,” DeMarco said, turning to two rows of SK hynix and PRF officials in the council chambers. “They did not give one – not one – definite answer to all your questions. Everything was, oh, we’re looking into this. Where are the answers? How can you approve this without those answers.”
Coming to aid of the rezoning request, Zhihong Chen, director of Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center, said the university already does much of the same work at Birck, though on smaller scale, that will be done at SK hynix’s facility.
“Just as Stanford helped spark Silicon Valley 60 years ago, Purdue and Indiana now have a chance to help create the Silicon Heartland,” Chen, a West Lafayette resident, said. “This means new career opportunities for our children, so they can build their future without having to leave the Midwest.”
Joerg Appenzeller, scientific director of nanoelectronics in the Birck Nanotechnology Center and a West Lafayette resident, said he was among 20 experts in semiconductor technology and sustainable manufacturing at Purdue who signed a letter advocating for SK hynix’s plans. He told council members that he signed on to the letter to help balance information coming from Purdue colleagues at the Area Plan Commission meeting in March.
“This is not the view from many of the Purdue faculty that was expressed in this APC meeting,” Appenzeller said.
Tippecanoe County Commissioner Tom Murtaugh encouraged council members to vote yes, hoping they’d see SK hynix’s plans would transform the community the way Subaru-Isuzu Automotive Inc. had in Lafayette in the 1980s.
THE COUNCIL VOTE
Council members Larry Leverenz, Michelle Dennis, Stacey Burr, Iris O’Donnell Bellisario, Colin Lee and James Blanco voted yes. Voting no: Kathy Parker, Laila Veidemanis and David Sanders.
Leverenz, who voted against the rezoning as an APC member on March 19, said he’d gone back and forth in recent weeks before he settled on switching to a yes vote on the city council.
Blanco said he wasn’t willing, in a time of economic uncertainties, to take a chance of missing out on SK hynix.
“It's one of the only things that's going to help protect us from a massive economic recession that could be coming,” Blanco said. “Our best shot is to push for the type of growth SK hynix offers.”
Dennis said she saw the decision really about the choice between the two properties and that the rezoning was just the first regulatory step SK hynix would have to go through. Lee said that if it was a matter of SK hynix building on one site or the other, he thought the site up for rezoning worked better because it wasn’t right up against subdivisions the way Site A was.
Burr said: “The conundrum, as I’ve been sitting here, is that what I hear the community asking for, which is we don’t want Site A or Site B to be the spot for SK hynix, is not what we’re actually voting on. And it’s not what we can actually deliver. I will be voting to optimize the zoning based on the current situation. That's my job sitting in this seat. And I will be relying on the regulatory, environmental and safety experts to do their job to the highest standard that they can deliver and that we all are expecting and deserve.”
Sanders, who signaled his no vote weeks ago, said he couldn’t get past how long it took PRF and SK hynix to come to the community with its plans. He said he blamed PRF for seemingly believing that because so many people were excited about SK hynix coming to West Lafayette that a rezoning request on neighboring land would just slide through. Instead, they faced neighbors who rose up.
“PRF overreached,” Sanders said. “This sort of behavior cannot be rewarded. … Simple, the community is asking us to vote no.”
Veidemanis said she was voting no to send a message that transparency and communication mattered. Parker said she had “the easiest job here in voting,” because she represents District 5, which includes the SK hynix site and the neighborhoods around it.
“Of all the opposition letters that came to us, 60% were from District 5,” Parker said. “And from the depths of my soul, I believe that elected people should vote the way their people want them to.”
Ahead of the vote, Mayor Erin Easter said: “What I do think is very important is that while this seems very fast, and in some ways it is, this is only the first step. Not only in welcoming SK hynix to our community, but also holding them accountable for the things they promise to do here. And both of those things have to be true for them to be successful in West Lafayette.”
SK HYNIX’S REACTION
After the vote, Kim, leading the SK hynix effort in West Lafayette, declined an interview on the way out of city hall. He later offered this prepared statement:
“We are grateful for the opportunity to bring a new semiconductor advanced packaging facility to West Lafayette. To us, this project represents so much more than just a business development, it’s a long-term partnership with West Lafayette and its people – our neighbors.
“From day one we have passionately believed that this facility will be a transformative force for the region, creating high-quality jobs, supporting local and state economies and contributing to the growth of an internationally renowned advanced technologies hub. But we also know that meaningful progress only happens when companies and communities work together.
“As we move forward with the planning and development process, we want to reiterate our commitment to open communication and active community engagement. As the past seven weeks testify, your feedback, questions and concerns matter, and have already helped us plan to build better, smarter and more responsibly. We invite you to stay involved and continue that dialogue with us as we intend to keep engaged with you. After all, our goal is to be a good neighbor and a responsible partner today and for years to come.
“Thank you for welcoming us into this wonderful community. We look forward to listening, learning and growing together.”
On the way out of city hall around city hall at 1:30 a.m. – as the city council took care of several other agenda items well past 2 a.m. – there was plenty of grumbling speculation that the night had been a done deal.
“Sadly predictable,” Debra Ellis, a West Lafayette resident, said.
MORE COVERAGE
Here are several key moments in the timeline on the rezoning request for SK hynix’s site in the past six weeks.
April 2024: ‘We won:’ Inside the chase for a $3.87B SK hynix chip facility in West Lafayette
March 20: Rezoning for $3.8B SK hynix facility gets thumbs down from APC
April 11: SK hynix makes its case in West Lafayette. A Q&A
April 19: Neighbors take to streets to protest $3.87B SK hynix chip site in West Lafayette
April 23: A short timeline of public discussions about SK hynix’s site
April 24: West Lafayette Mayor Erin Easter: ‘Still confident in SK hynix.’ A Q&A
April 24: SK hynix’s 2.8M-gallon-a-day water needs: Indiana American weighs in
April 25: SK hynix rezone: WL City Council moving closer to yes vote on $3.87B site?
May 1: GLC backs up its support for SK hynix, as pushback for $3.87B chip site continues
May 2: ‘Sometimes David wins:’ WL neighborhoods find ally in fight over $3.87B SK hynix site
May 3: Q&A: SK hynix on chemicals, whether another WL site would work for $3.87B chip facility and more
May 4: SK hynix makes its last pitch, as zoning vote looms in West Lafayette
May 5: SK hynix, PRF offer compromise hours before zoning vote for $3.87B chip site
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
Thank you, Dave Bangert, for doing such a thorough job of reporting on the SK Hynix project. A true journalist, and one I value as a positive contributor to our community. Kudos!
Dave,
Thanks again for your fantastic work on this issue.
You are vital to our community in knowing the details about this topic and so many others that affect us.
Chris