SK hynix site work expected soon, as neighbors give WL council another earful

County’s drainage board clears way for grading work where South Korean company’s semiconductor facility will be, a day after residents call on West Lafayette to reverse rezoning vote. That and more.

Dirt could be moving soon on the planned site of SK hynix’s $3.87 billion semiconductor facility in West Lafayette, after the company received approval from the Tippecanoe County Drainage Board Wednesday morning to grade more than 100 acres north of Kalberer Road.

The drainage board’s permission included stormwater management and erosion control for only the dirt-moving needed to level the roughly ground between Yeager Road and County Road 50 West/Salisbury Street, Zach Beasley, the county surveyor, said.

This is a bird’s eye view of what SK hynix says its $3.87 billion facility will look like, looking northwest from the corner of Kalberer Road and Salisbury Street/County Road 50 West. (Image via SK hynix)

The South Korean company would need another round of approvals dealing with how water drains at the site before construction started on the planned 340,000-square-foot R&D and manufacturing facility, he said.

The decision came a morning after residents, still steamed about industrial zoning granted in May for SK hynix’s preferred site, confronted West Lafayette City Council members Tuesday night, asking them to stop construction and reconsider their 6-3 vote from four months ago and overturn a decision residents called a betrayal of those who live near the land.