SK hynix, PRF ask for summary judgment in residents’ legal challenge
Attorneys say lawsuits don’t stack up. New revelation: City council members met in private with officials of South Korean semiconductor company after APC recommended denying zoning for $3.87B facility
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SK HYNIX, PRF ASK FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN RESIDENTS’ LEGAL CHALLENGE
Attorneys for SK hynix and Purdue Research Foundation are asking the court for a summary judgment that would end a pair of lawsuits challenging a rezoning that cleared the way for a $3.87 billion semiconductor facility in West Lafayette, according to a filing the day before Thanksgiving.
The filing argues the lawsuits hoping to overturn the rezoning – and in effect stop construction of a 340,000-square-foot plant that would assemble high-bandwidth memory chips for the AI computing market – fall short of needing a trial to settle questions about open door and procedural violations, due process and conflict of interest claims and accusations that the city council had no rational basis to support its 6-3 vote in May.
The cases already were scheduled for a hearing Monday, Dec. 1, in Tippecanoe Circuit Court to update several matters related to a pair of lawsuits filed in June by residents who live near the planned site north of Kalberer Road, between Yeager Road and County Road 50 West/Salisbury Street.
The pair of complaints in question come from three West Lafayette residents who filed lawsuits naming West Lafayette, Purdue Research Foundation, SK hynix and the Area Plan Commission.
Lora Williams, a nurse at a local hospital who said she frequently cycles or travels near the proposed SK hynix site, contends that the city council overstepped its authority, ignoring warnings from local experts about health, environmental and other concerns in its vote. Residents Sean Sasser and Karl Janich filed a similar complaint, raising questions about improper notice about the rezoning process, a general lack of study or evidence about the potential impacts on the environment and the neighborhoods, and allegations of backroom negotiations between the city and SK hynix that influenced what was a controversial decision. The lawsuits contend the city council should have either accepted a 9-5 vote in March from the Area Plan Commission to recommend denial or sent the matter back to the APC for further review.
The motion SK hynix and PRF attorneys filed last week runs through the history about why they say the 121-acre location – eventually dubbed by officials at the South Korean company as “Site B” – was chosen from a pair of options at Purdue Research Park land, close to each other but on either side of Yeager Road.
The motion contends that timely notices were sent to 31 nearby property owners – those “within two parcels, or 200 feet, whichever is greater” – legal notices were properly placed in the Journal & Courier and signs were set up on the property notifying about the Area Plan Commission and West Lafayette City Council meeting times and dates, according to procedures set up in local zoning bylaws.
The motion notes that the three plaintiffs either spoke at the meetings or sent emails ahead of time against the rezoning, indicating that they knew about the hearings and undercutting a “nonsensical argument” that notice ahead of the rezoning hearing “was deficient even though they clearly understood it themselves.”
The motion also attempts to knock down an argument that the APC hearing “was scheduled during Purdue University’s spring break and one day before the Purdue University men’s basketball team played a game” in the NCAA Tournament. The motion argues that “this argument wholly fails” and that the lawsuits offer no legal authority “that the APC must take into consideration ancillary activities happening in and around Tippecanoe County in setting its calendar, the year prior, for its regularly scheduled meetings for the following year.”
Mentioned for the first time in the case: “a caucus of the Democratic members of the City Council.”
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