‘Just give me an answer:’ Neighbors aren’t relenting on opposition to SK hynix site
Neighbors near the $3.87 billion site say they’re afraid they’re ‘screwed,’ tired of not getting answers to lingering questions.
Monday evening marked the eighth time the West Lafayette City Council has met since agreeing, on a controversial 6-3 vote in May 2025, to rezone 121 acres of Purdue Research Foundation-owned land north of Kalberer Road for heavy industry to accommodate a $3.87 billion chip assembly facility planned by South Korean company SK hynix.
And it was the eighth time residents near the site on the northern edge of West Lafayette drilled city council members during open-ended public comment time with questions about just how much care went into a decision they say will bring an unwanted industrial future to their residential area.
This time around, residents from University Farm, Arbor Chase and other nearby neighborhoods traded hazmat suits – a prop a couple of months ago – for placards printed simply with question marks.
Neighbors ringed the council chambers in city hall, holding the signs, as speakers ran through dozens of scripted queries about SK hynix’s plans, how they came about and lingering fears about what one of the biggest economic developments in Indiana history would mean for the real estate market on their homes, environmental and industrial hazards and general quality of life.
The questions and challenges for city council members to reverse course – something they’ve not shown they’re ready to do – echoed those tossed out in previous months.
Which had Don Coller, a University Farm resident, opening by cutting to the chase.
“My question is, how do we get our questions answered?” Coller asked of council members, who typically listen to public comment without turning the time into question-and-answer sessions. “I want to know. Just give me an answer. They don’t answer.”
