‘Sometimes David wins:’ WL neighborhoods find ally in fight over $3.87B SK hynix site

A Q&A with the head of CHIPS Communities United, a national coalition monitoring the rollout of a CHIPS Act-era landscape … including a rezoning fight now playing in West Lafayette

• Support for this edition comes from Food Finders Food Bank, presenting its Blue Jean Ball Saturday, May 3. The annual event and auction raises funds for Food Finders’ mission of serving 84,000 individuals across a 16-county service area who are one emergency away from hunger. Check here for tickets and to see items available in the auction.

---

‘SOMETIMES DAVID WINS:’ WL NEIGHBORHOODS FIND ALLY IN FIGHT OVER $3.87B SK HYNIX SITE

As neighbors who live in West Lafayette subdivisions across the road from where SK hynix hopes to build a $3.87 billion, 430,000-square-foot semiconductor facility continue to push Purdue, the city and the South Korean company on issues about the environmental impact and sheer scope of the project, they’ve found an ally in a national coalition asking for similar assurances in a CHIPS Act-era landscape.

Born out of the CHIPS and Science Act, a federal measure that aimed $52.7 billion at bringing chip R&D and manufacturing to the U.S., CHIPS Communities United has been monitoring things in West Lafayette from afar.

“There's a lot in the industry that concerns people,” Judith Barish, the California-based director of the coalition, said this week. “You’re seeing that where you are, now. … We support the building of new semiconductor factories. We think it should be done in a way that is responsible.”

In play in West Lafayette is a request to rezone 121 acres in the Purdue Research Park – north of Kalberer Road, between Yeager Road and Salisbury Street/County Road 50 West – from residential to industrial uses. SK hynix officials say that’s their preferred site for a facility that would start assembly of high-bandwidth memory in 2028 and eventually employ 1,000 people in West Lafayette. Neighbors say it’s too close to where they live. The West Lafayette City Council is scheduled to vote on that Monday.

Heading into a third of three community meetings Saturday morning meant to let SK hynix make its case that its advanced chip packaging and R&D facility will be among the responsible, neighbors have gathered more than 2,400 signatures on petitions and pumped out loads of questions they say haven’t been answered yet.

But one neighbor called the national coalition’s work a look at how West Lafayette’s case fit in with others in the CHIPS Act era, offering what they took as warnings to be cautious.

Here are excerpts of an interview this week with Judith Barish.

Question: How familiar are you with West Lafayette’s situation?

Judith Barish: We've been tracking SK hynix, loosely, since it was announced a year ago, because we're a coalition of folks who are concerned with the reshoring of the semiconductor industry. I've been following it from afar and just saw no interest and no engagement, until a month ago, when I started receiving lots of emails and calls from people who were concerned and wanted to talk.

Question: What had you been tracking with SK hynix’s plans? And what did you see?

Judith Barish: Let me just give you a tiny bit of background. We are a coalition of unions, environmental groups and community-based organizations that came together after the signing of the CHIPS and Science Act (in 2022). The mission was, we know this industry has a history of being extremely toxic for both workers and communities and exploitative of workers, but maybe reshoring it now, intentionally with public support, we can do it right. We can make it a green, sustainable, equitable industry. So, that is the mission of our coalition.

Question: How did that start? What was the impetus that brought you together on that, besides the CHIPS Act?

Judith Barish: It was after the CHIPS Act was signed, two different forces came together. Some were activists, particularly environmentalists … who came out of Silicon Valley and had been involved in the early years of the semiconductor industry and electronics production, and knew the dangers that posed. They were like, We need to do it right this time. Then the other direction were communities and unions, who thought maybe if the industry is ushered in in a more intentional way, it could be better for workers. Because it's got a history of being a terrible place to work, like very low job quality, not very good wages, extremely anti-union, people being worked long hours, unpaid furloughs. There's a lot in the industry that concerns people. So, those are the two different directions – can we make these good jobs, and can we avoid the mistakes of the past?

(Note of context: SK hynix received word in August 2024 that it would get $458 million in federal CHIPS Act money as it makes plans to build its advanced chip packaging and research facility at the Purdue Research Park. The U.S. Commerce Department, under then President Joe Biden’s administration, also was expected to have access to up to another $500 million in federal loans to support development of the planned 430,000-square-foot facility north of Kalberer Road.)

Question: So, you’ve been in this work, really, for three years. Have you seen any of those goals being met?

Judith Barish: We focused for a while on federal advocacy, looking at CHIPS Act implementation and urging (then-President Joe) Biden's Commerce Department to put common sense safeguards on the CHIPS Act incentive grants. We wanted to make sure that companies that received millions, or in some cases billions, of dollars of public money were actually committing to create good jobs and protect the environment. And I would say we had some modest success on that front.

Now our work has shifted to the local level to some of the communities where the semiconductor companies are either expanding or, as in the case of SK hynix, being built for the first time. And there we’re working with local community members and local grassroots organizations to hold the companies accountable.

When I say that we've been tracking SK hynix, it’s not closely, because we don't have anchor organizations that wanted to organize there.

NOW’S THE RIGHT TIME TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE BASED IN LAFAYETTE REPORTING PROJECT. FREE AND FULL-ACCESS OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE HERE …

Question: Why do you think that was?

Judith Barish: That's a good question. I mean, Indiana is not anybody's target state for winning strong environmental regulations and union protections. I think that's a big part of it, that political part. But I don’t actually have a good answer to your question.

Question: It’s been a slow rise here, since the announcement in April 2024. Until a couple of months ago, and all of a sudden it became an all-consuming thing, aiming toward next week. Have you seen situations where something like a company’s expansion or a company coming to a community getting snagged by something like a rezoning case?

Judith Barish: I don't think I have seen any analogies. But the most similar situation is in a suburb of Phoenix called Peoria, and a neighborhood called Vistancia, where an advanced packaging plant called Amkor (Technology) is trying to build a new facility, and they're going to be breaking ground this summer. (See: “Amkor's $2B semiconductor testing campus in Peoria sparks outrage among residents,” Feb. 21, 2025, Arizona Republic.) It was a similar situation where the economic development plans changed and the neighbors were not aware of what was happening until it seemed like it was too late, and the community is up in arms. It’s similarly touch and go. In Peoria, they have a huge Facebook group, they've created a nonprofit to respond to the company's plans, and they're holding town hall meetings with hundreds of people. So, it's in some ways very similar.

Question: What advice have you given Peoria? And then what advice have you been giving to West Lafayette?

Judith Barish: Let me say that the position of our coalition is that we support the building of new semiconductor factories. We think it should be done in a way that is responsible, that is accountable to the local community, that benefits workers and doesn't hurt the environment. But we do not oppose SK hynix coming to town. But in a case where it seems like economic development plans are being carried out in ways that might harm the environment and be bad for communities, we're urging the concerned people to get together and reach out to the city council, reach out to their neighbors, try to elevate this as a public issue. Because we think that this is the kind of decision that should be made with full transparency and accountability to the local community.

There are lots of ways that a community can get involved in a decision like this. The model that we would adopt is what's called a community benefits agreement (CBA), where SK hynix sits down with community-based leaders and negotiates a legally binding agreement where they promise to do X and not to do Y, and the details of what they agreed to could vary by community.

Question: What would X and not Y be in a community benefits agreement? What would be some examples that your group has found to be effective or reasonable – or both?

Judith Barish: These are early stages. We haven't gotten any CBAs with semiconductor companies, yet. But some of the things that some communities are concerned about, I guess, could be divided into two categories. There's the sort of jobs and equity side, and there's the environment and toxic side.

On the jobs and equity side, a commitment to create a certain number of jobs, assurance that those jobs will go to community members that need them the most, steps to provide access so that underserved community members could get those jobs and access plans ranging from advertising to transportation to make sure that members of underserved communities could get the work. That would be one piece. And I say this in the context of the CHIPS and Science Act was sold to the American public as a way to create really good manufacturing jobs in U.S. communities that need them. So, it's important that the companies that are receiving, in the case of SK hynix, $400-some-million in federal money actually fulfill those commitments. That would be on one side.

I know that neighbors in West Lafayette are particularly concerned about the toxins and the environmental side. Some things that you might see in a CBA would be commitments to particular technologies of air pollution mitigation, the promise to monitor and publicly report on what chemicals are emitted in the air. Similarly in wastewater … a community might seek commitments that a certain kind of cleanup would be done before the wastewater was released. People are very concerned around semiconductor companies and PFAS, the toxic, forever chemicals that persist in our bodies, our soil and water and are not safe in any quantity. How does SK hynix propose to clean those up? Publicly owned treatment works don't have the capacity to do so. If they dump them in their effluent, then these chemicals end up in our groundwater and they end up in our drinking water. So, you might ask for a commitment that they clean them up and destroy those chemicals, not ship them somewhere else and move the problem somewhere else, but actually destroy them. And there are new technologies for destroying PFAS.

Those are some examples of things that a community might ask for.

Question: Do you have a sense of why there are none of these community benefits agreements out there, yet?

Judith Barish: It’s in the early days of the campaign. Some of these factories are just getting launched, so this is something that takes a while to negotiate. There are other CBAs around other businesses and other places in the country. It's not a new concept.

Question: What would be considered a reasonable success, as you're watching this for a group of neighbors trying to rally in this case?

Judith Barish: A number of things I would count as a success. First of all, if the community is able to actually sit down and negotiate with the company, that would be a success. If the city council commits to supporting that kind of negotiation and discussion, that will be a success. In the long run, if the community is able to negotiate a multi-factor community benefits agreement and enforce it, that will be a massive success. But there are lots of smaller wins. If SK hynix made a commitment to monitor their wastewater for PFAS and report it publicly with the best EPA method for PFAS detection. One of the problems with PFAS is it's a family which has over 10,000 different chemicals in it. How do you monitor 10,000 different chemicals? The EPA has a method that monitors for 40. That would be a good start.

(Note: The CHIPS for America site listing SK hynix’s CHIPS Act funding says: “SK hynix will use its best efforts to segregate known process per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (‘PFAS’) that contain chemicals from other waste streams to a closed bulk storage system for off-site management by licensed and permitted treatment and disposal facilities.” During community meetings, SK hynix officials have said the facility would not use PFAS compounds regulated by the Stockholm Convention.)

Question: One thing that SK hynix has committed to and unveiled a couple of weeks ago is that they want to have a community advisory board that would include company and city and neighborhood representatives that goes beyond this rezoning issue. Is that something that you’d count as a win? Or is that sort of a token to community opposition?

Judith Barish: I think that any forum that provides neighbors and community members an opportunity to participate in the conversations about how the economic development is going to take place, I think is a useful step. Now, one could imagine a community advisory board being stacked with members of, you know, the Chamber of Commerce and others who are not interested in holding SK hynix accountable. Then it would be kind of a sham. But if it actually was representative of some of the concerns of the concerned neighbors and communities, then I think it could be really a useful opportunity to start hearing concerns and discussing them and seeking mutually agreeable solutions.

Question: Do you find that at the point the neighborhood and the city find themselves in, with a supportive city, a very supportive university and a group of maybe three large, nearby neighborhoods that are super-concerned, is it too late at this point to turn back a year's worth – and probably a year on top of that of things that the public wasn’t privy to – of that kind of planning?

Judith Barish: I have no idea the answer to that question. I would not want to tell the community that it's too late for them. But even if it is too late to stop it – and I’m not saying it is – the devil is in the details. This could be a company that pays lousy wages, exploits its workers, pollutes the air and pollutes the water. Or it could be a company that creates great jobs, allows workers to collectively bargain, if they want to join a union, monitors air pollution, monitors water pollution and works with the community to reduce levels of toxins, then it could be a really responsible employer and member of the community. I think there's a lot of room to negotiate. And, you know, SK hynix is a very wealthy, highly capitalized company with the resources to do this work right, if there's public pressure to do so.

Question: The strongest sentiment I hear is this facility’s just in the wrong spot. That SK hynix is the right company for this region, working directly with Purdue, doing research and development, all the rest of it. But during an Area Plan Commission meeting in March, where this came up, you actually had some named professors from Purdue who work in the semiconductor and chip research fields, who also live nearby, who basically made it sound like Ralph Nader and the Corvair from the old days – unsafe at any speed. And, really, it turned the entire conversation. Is this idea simply unsafe at any speed, where it’s looking to go? Or, in your view, is it just something that needs to be reasonably negotiated at this point?

Judith Barish: I don’t know the answer to that. I would not want it in my backyard. I would not want this next to my kids’ school.

Question: Why is that?

Judith Barish: A semiconductor factory is a chemical factory. And many of those chemicals are hazardous and toxic. And there's an ever-present threat of leaks and spills and contamination. I'm sure that SK hynix will be a responsible community member and take steps to minimize that, but in most circumstances, semiconductor factories do not belong in residential neighborhoods.

Question: With the whole move of the CHIPS Act trying to deal with national security and supply chain and all those kinds of things, is it a safer industry now than it was during those earlier days.

Judith Barish: Yes. It's safer for at least two reasons. One is that we know more about the risks, and companies have been held accountable. I don't know if SK hynix has had any of these issues, but lots of U.S. workers were poisoned back in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s. There were birth defects, stillborn babies, miscarriages at very high rates among workers. And then when the companies moved to Asia, similar problems happened there. Samsung was forced to apologize to and compensate hundreds of women who had workers who had reproductive health problems from work that they did in a Samsung plant in South Korea. So, we've learned about this, and the companies have reacted. The other thing is it’s increasingly automated. Things that were once done by many not-very-well-paid young women workers are now done by machines, and the machines can't be poisoned. So, it is a safer industry. But it still uses ferociously toxic chemicals, and that hazard can't be eliminated in the short run. In the long run, we hope it will be. And actually, part of the CHIPS Act money went to researching safer alternatives for some of these chemicals.

Question: Still, we’re talking about a zoning decision in the next few days.

Judith Barish: It's David and Goliath, right? But, you know, sometimes David wins. … What are you hearing from the decision-makers?

Question: This decision has really put the city council in a bind. I think they want this development. It's 1,000 jobs, plus another 3,000 with suppliers, plus whatever spinoff calculation you have. But I also think that they are hearing what you're saying filtered through community members who have been grabbing at everything they can find. It's not clear cut what's going to happen.

Judith Barish: Here’s the thing I would say to the city council members: A few years from now, if there's a gas leak that sends workers to the hospital, and that's something that has happened at Intel; if there's a leak of caustic chemicals into the Wabash River that kills aquatic plant life, and that's happened at Samsung in Texas; if the concentration of PFAs chemicals in the drinking water goes up, those city council members are going to own those problems. I think that's what I would say to the city council: You're going to own those problems. So, I would be really careful with my vote.

WHAT’S NEXT

CITY COUNCIL VOTE: The West Lafayette City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday at city hall, 222 N. Chauncey Ave. On Tuesday, the city released the following guidelines about where overflow crowds can participate in public comment that night.

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

COMMUNITY MEETING NO. 3 FOR SK HYNIX: The third of three community meetings on the SK hynix rezoning proposal will be 9 a.m. Saturday, May 3, will be at West Lafayette City Hall, 222 N. Chauncey Ave. According to a release Wednesday from the city, the meeting will be a mix of the previous two community sessions – a science fair-style poster session and informational stations will be up starting at 9 a.m., with a 10 a.m. panel discussion and Q&A with officials from the South Korean company. Seating will be limited to 150 people between the council chambers and city hall’s Bean Room, according to the city release. Anyone with questions or comments may submit those ahead of time at: neuron.prf.org/#contact

Q&A SITE FOR SK HYNIX’S PLANS: The South Korean semiconductor company and Purdue Research Foundation last week released a website with their plans for a $3.87 billion R&D and advanced chip packaging facility expected to open for production in 2028 and eventually employ 1,000 people in West Lafayette. The FAQ offers SK hynix’s answers to questions raised recently about site selection and the company’s approach to environmental, waste handling, traffic and other issues. According to the company, the website will include additional content in the coming days. For now, here’s a way into a page about “Project Neuron,” which was the code name used when recruiting SK hynix to the Purdue Research Park: neuron.prf.org/

MORE COVERAGE

Here are a few key moments in the timelines 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 3: ‘Humbling opportunity:’ SK hynix sets community meetings after $3.87B plans run into neighborhood protest

• April 11: SK hynix makes its case in West Lafayette. A Q&A

• April 12: SK hynix, PRF accused of ‘broken trust’ on $3.87B plans, as they vow to do more to win over neighbors

• April 19: Neighbors take to streets to protest $3.87B SK hynix chip site in West Lafayette

• April 20: Purdue’s semiconductor leader: If West Lafayette misses on SK hynix, ‘we will never have this opportunity again.’ A Q&A

• April 23: A short timelines of public discussions about SK hynix’s site

• April 24: West Lafayette Mayor Erin Easter: ‘Still confident in SK hynix.’ A Q&A

• 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

---

THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …

LPD REPORT: MAN SHOT, KILLED AFTER SHOOTING AT OFFICERS THURSDAY: A man who Lafayette police reported started shooting at officers while they were on a standby detail at a southside apartment during a domestic incident was killed in return fire Thursday night, according to police. Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello identified that man as Kenneth D. Smith, 55, of Lafayette. Costello reported after an autopsy that Smith died from multiple gunshot wounds. According to LPD, the shooting happened at 9:02 p.m. Thursday in the 2800 block of Ravenwood Court. Lafayette police reported that officers were at the apartment, requested to be there as a woman and a child left after a domestic incident. According to the police account, Smith began shooting at the officers, and they returned fire. Smith was pronounced dead at the scene, according to LPD. No officers were injured, according to LPD. The officers involved have been put on administrative leave during a criminal and internal investigation, based on LPD policy, police reported.

CUTBACKS AT WABASH: J&C reporter Jillian Ellison had this about another round of cuts announced this week at Lafayette-based trailer-maker Wabash: “Wabash further reduces workforce after 'weaker' Q1 results; 2025 to be a 'difficult year.’”

THE STATE BUDGET AND CONTROL AT UNIVERSITIES: Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Casey Smith took a look at last-minute provisions layered into the state’s new two-year budget – without usual opportunities for public comment – that loom large for university faculty and how academic programs works at state schools. In addition to stripping alumni input to electing trustees at Indiana University, the state budget bill has provisions that reduce the influence of faculty-led governing bodies, such as Purdue’s University Senate. Smith reports: “Faculty senates, for example, which are traditionally responsible for shaping a school’s academic policy, will now be limited to an advisory role. More authority will instead shift to university trustees and administrative leadership. Republican supermajority leadership maintained the changes are necessary and defended using the budget as a vehicle bill. House budget architect Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Lizton, said the language was added because universities, like the rest of state government, need to slim spending. The two-year budget cuts funding for the state’s public colleges by 5%. “‘There’s been ongoing discussion about the efficiency in higher education, and that’s always a fair discussion as to how we maximize the use of taxpayer dollars,’ Thompson said. ‘That’s an ongoing discussion. That’s one of our responsibilities.’” For more on the state budget bill and how universities run, here’s the rest from the Indiana Capital Chronicle: “Indiana budget bill curbs university faculty power, ties tenure to new ‘productivity’ reviews.”

Thanks for support for this edition goes to Food Finders Food Bank, presenting its Blue Jean Ball Saturday, May 3. The annual event and auction raises funds for Food Finders’ mission of serving 84,000 individuals across a 16-county service area who are one emergency away from hunger. Get more information here.

Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.