SK hynix, PRF accused of ‘broken trust’ on $3.87B plans, as they vow to do more to win over neighbors
Sentiment at first of three community meetings: Welcome to West Lafayette, SK hynix … just not next to our neighborhoods. A crucial rezoning vote coming May 5.
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SK HYNIX, PRF ACCUSED OF ‘BROKEN TRUST’ ON $3.87B PLANS, AS THEY VOW TO DO MORE TO WIN OVER NEIGHBORS
SK hynix officials offered a conciliatory stance Friday evening, telling a crowd that they should have brought their hopes and plans directly to West Lafayette residents well before a controversial zoning request for their $3.87 billion advanced chip packaging and R&D facility ran into neighborhood protests that threatened the company’s preferred location.
“We humbly accept the criticism that has been provided,” NK Kim, a senior vice president with the giant South Korean semiconductor company, told more than 200 people who crammed a conference area and into a lobby at the Convergence Center in Purdue’s Discovery Park District on the edge of campus.
In the first of three promised community meetings – all timed before a crucial May 5 West Lafayette City Council vote on an industrial rezoning request for 121 acres north of Kalberer Road – company officials worked to tell the company’s story and to alleviate environmental, traffic and noise concerns that led to a 9-5 vote by the Area Plan Commission on March 19 to recommend denial.
SJ Yang, vice president and head of global biz policy for SK hynix, said the company planned to create a community advisory board that would help shape a relationship with neighbors that got off to a rocky start.
Yang said the decision to put SK hynix’s first U.S. facility in the Purdue Research Park – announced in April 2024 and touted one of the largest economic development investments in Indiana history – came from “years of careful consideration.” He said SK hynix’s move meant building something from the ground up in a cyclical industry that “requires continuous capital investment, making every strategic decision critical and, at times, irreversible.”
“It is to us very, very important – it has a lot of stake to us,” Yang said. “We want to be your partner. We want to be your neighborhood. And we want to make decisions together and pave our joint paths. … But we need your support, and we are together with you. Rest assured that we’ll be your partner that makes a win-win outcome.”
Kim also said that while SK hynix wanted to go on the 121 acres up for rezoning – to be close to Purdue researchers, to be near a commercial zone being considered along Kalberer Road for child care and medical facilities and to be near suppliers expected to follow the chip packaging facility – the company was prepared to put the facility on the west side of Yeager Road. That was the initial site, already zoned appropriately.
Kim said SK hynix began looking at what it calls Site B in February, because the Purdue Research Foundation-owned land was bigger, more conveniently shaped and better located for the 430,000-square foot facility expected to open for production in 2028 and eventually employ roughly 1,000 people. (PRF officials repeated Friday that the land north of Kalberer Road, between Yeager Road and County Road 50 West, while zoned for residential use has always been considered part of future plans for the Purdue Research Park and its companies.)
“We will adhere to the voices of the community,” Kim said. “If the decision is reached, we are willing to revert back to our original decision of choosing Site A.”
What that decision would mean for the collection of some 143 suppliers SK hynix wants to plant nearby the $3.87 billion facility wasn’t immediately clear Friday.
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During a Q&A session and still after the 90-minute meeting, many in the crowd were restless, saying they weren’t convinced the SK hynix facility was something they wanted across the road from Amberleigh Village, University Farm, Arbor Chase and other nearby neighborhoods in West Lafayette and just to the north.
Repeated often during the Q&A and interviews afterward: We’re glad SK hynix is coming to West Lafayette, just not where it’s proposed.
“Don’t start out the project by making our community members unhappy,” Rwitti Roy, a University Farm subdivision resident, said. “We want to be your neighbors, but not very close neighbors.”
Andrew Patton, a University Farm resident, picked up a line from company officials in a Based in Lafayette Q&A published earlier Friday, in which Kim called the lack of community outreach in the past year “a small regret.”
“What's puzzling to me is that there has been no meaningful citizen involvement for such a significant zoning decision, from R1 (residential) to I3 (heavy industrial) within a large residential area until the last month or so – a decision that will change our residential landscape, regardless of what heavy industry uses this site,” Patton said.
“I have to be honest and say, when I hear SK Hynix acknowledge that communication with the local community has been lacking, and then you add that this is a small regret,” Patton said, “from my perspective, you have already broken trust with our community.”
Kim responded: “From today, SK hynix fully commits to continued and strengthened communication with the local community. This not only extends to SK hynix, but to our suppliers, as well.”
Afterward, residents were still skeptical. Several said they believed the zoning vote and SK hynix’s plans were done deals, even before the next set of community meetings, yet to be set.
“I’m glad they’re here, but I don’t think they belong in a residential neighborhood,” Sue Goecker, a West Lafayette resident said. “It such a good, little city. … They never explained why they can’t move out farther.”
Sean Sasser, who lives north of West Lafayette, said: “PRF, frankly, has been arrogant. We’re going to put this here, screw you guys. Because when you hear them make the presentation, it’s like, This is coming. It doesn’t matter what you say or do.”
Maybe most importantly Friday were city council members in the audience. In a Based in Lafayette survey two weeks ago, three of the nine council members said they were inclined to vote no on the rezoning request when it lands on their desk May 5. Others said they were still mulling the question, though a few said at the time that they were leaning toward a no vote.
James Blanco, who said two weeks ago that he was still considering his vote, came away Friday saying he was in a similar position after the meeting.
“I’m still figuring it out,” Blanco said. “I see there’s definitely some opportunities for this in West Lafayette. Big opportunities. But I think there’s just a lot of questions that need to be answered.”
West Lafayette Mayor Erin Easter, who has supported and says she continues to SK hynix’s plans, was there Friday.
“There were a lot of things I did know, and I’m glad that the community had the chance to hear some of those things,” Easter said. “I know it’s not going to alleviate every concern, and I’m not asking for it to, at all. What I’m asking for is for everyone to approach this with open ears and continue to ask questions. There will be plenty of information forthcoming. We’re talking about highly technical information, as you saw tonight.”
Much of what SK hynix officials addressed Friday covered similar ground in this Q&A with BiL, including their hopes to use both Site A and Site B – on either side of Yeager Road – for the chip packaging facility and its suppliers; the company’s track record with facilities in Icheon and Cheongju that were built in close proximity with residential areas; the community work it plans to do in West Lafayette, including with trails, child care facilities and more; how the plant would use more than 2 million gallons of water a day; and how a packaging facility – essentially stacking and combining chips made elsewhere for specific, high-powered uses in the AI and other computing market – differs from a more intensive front-line production of semiconductor chips.
The meeting brought out supporters of SK hynix’s plans, too.
Mark Lundstrom, an electrical and computer science professor and Purdue’s chief semiconductor officer, said he’d skipped Friday’s Bob Dylan concert at Elliott Hall of Hall of Music to talk about how he’d been working with semiconductors and the industry for more than 50 years. He said similar projects have been placed in other U.S. cities without issues –in some cases with residential developments being built later near the facilities.
“(SK hynix) is one of the most successful and the most important companies in the world right now,” Lundstrom said. “And we're all looking forward to the opportunities that it's going to create. Our faculty have been meeting weekly with your researchers and SK Hynix to identify the research connections. …
“We've had semiconductor facilities in the U.S. for decades,” Lundstrom said. “But we haven't had a lot of this industry in the Midwest. It's new. But as Bob would say, the times they are a-changing. This industry is new here, and people have concerns and questions.”
Charlie Shook, a West Lafayette resident and a leader with F.C. Tucker/Shook real estate, said he believed SK hynix would increase home values in the area, even as some questioned whether they would stick around if a facility was built near Kalberer Road and County Road 50 West. Shook equated the company’s plans to similar major business recruiting his family’s Shook Agency had been tied to through a century in Greater Lafayette.
“I've heard it in the legacy of my family that as soon as a new employer comes to town, you almost have to begin looking for the next good employer, because employers have seasons of strengths and weaknesses,” Shook said. “And I think this, in my mind, is an opportunity we don't want to miss.”
Ryan Kennedy, a West Lafayette resident and homebuilder, said: “My children go to West Lafayette schools. They also go to the (John Dennis) Wellness Center (on Kalberer Road) for after-school and summer camp. I trust you guys with our safety. I do not have any doubt that you guys will be good corporate partners, just like the other corporate partners that we currently have in Tippecanoe County.”
Among the questions posed to SK hynix Friday:
George Lyle, a West Lafayette resident recently elected to the school board, asked about the white plumes seen in Google maps coming from the SK hynix facility in Icheon. Nohyeok Park, head of SK hynix’s Icheon Environmental, said that was vapor coming from water used to cool operations in the facility’s clean rooms.
Debra Ellis, a West Lafayette resident, asked whether independent environmental impact studies had been done for the site, including production, chemical use, truck traffic and water and air emissions. And if not, she asked, when would that be done and when could the community see the results? Kim said, “We are not able to conduct the (environmental impact assessment) until the site has been selected.” After that, Kim said, the process would take six to seven months.
Addressing the company’s safety track record, Park said that “there have been small scale, isolated incidents that resulted in personal injury. However, all accidents were contained within the facility and no harm was caused to near my residents. The safety of workers and citizens are our highest priority. … All investment and operations are done with the happiness of our neighbors in mind.”
Asked about the usage and release of PFAS – polyfluoroalkyl substances, considered “forever chemicals” – in SK hynix’s operations, Park said that in the advanced packaging of high-bandwidth memory, “we are adhering to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and there is no PFAS being created during the advanced packaging process.”
Park said the facility would aim to be a zero waste to landfill operation. He presented a slide that contended that a “three-stage multi-system operation completely blocks potential pollutant emissions.” He said that approximately 50% of the water discharged during the process would be recycled. Chemical waste produced at the facility would be enough to fill one tanker truck every two days, he said. Several residents said they still had lingering questions on that. “I think we still need to answer where that waste is going to go,” Magan Lee, a West Lafayette resident, said after the meeting. “What does zero waste mean?”
The Q&A portion ended with a queue of people still waiting to ask questions.
At the start of the session, SK hynix and PRF offered cards for people to write their questions to be considered at the next community meetings or in FAQ sites later. Chad Pittman, PRF president and CEO, offered to meet one-on-one with people as the process played out.
“This is a great discussion,” Pittman said. “It’s the beginning of a journey.”
WHAT’S NEXT
SK hynix officials say there will be two more community meetings about their plans in the coming weeks. As of Friday, times, dates and locations had not been finalized. Friday’s session included 90 minutes of an SK hynix presentation and Q&A.
A pair of rezoning requests connected to the project – north of Kalberer Road, between Yeager Road and County Road 50 West/Salisbury Street – has been rescheduled for a city council vote at 6:30 p.m. May 5 at city hall, 222 N. Chauncey Ave.
Neighborhood groups continue to circulate a petition against a rezoning plan north of Kalberer Road. Here’s a look at the petition.
FOR MORE
Here’s how the site planning and rezoning issues for SK hynix have played out over the past month:
March 16: SK hynix eyes new WL site for $3.87B chip facility, up for rezoning this week
March 20: Rezoning for $3.8B SK hynix facility gets thumbs down from APC
March 23: WL City Council survey: Still unsure on SK hynix rezoning
March 26: Rezone request for $3.8B SK hynix facility on hold, for now
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Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission? Having been through and still in the LEAP fiasco, I'm leery. Simply put, I'm not against investments that will economically benefit the community - but please don't steal or poison my water or poison my land or build the infrastructure and then decide it's cheaper in Mexico and leave us with another Superfund site. Fair enough?
I have high hopes that PRF will improve the logistics of the next set of meetings. Last night, 2/3rds of the attendees were not in the meeting area, but were standing crowded into the lobby which did not have audio (as far as I could tell). The acoustics were poor with hard reflecting surfaces interfering with sound distribution. The audio system was underpowered. Audio delivery was poor - speakers were not prepped to speak directly into the microphone. No one from PRF interceded to remedy that. The Korean interpreters voice did not carry at all. Many people could not see the presentation as it was at an awkward angle from the lobby. The time for Q&A and interaction with the SK Hynix representatives was much too short and limited. PRF, please spring for Fowler Hall next time or a Union ballroom with a dedicated AV crew so that all attendees can hear and see everything spoken and presented in these important meetings.
PS: And also, please ditch the PRF rah-rah speech. We need to hear directly from SK Hynix, not you. Thank you.