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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowWEST LAFAYETTE – After earning major federal and state backing to build a $3.87 billion manufacturing campus in West Lafayette, South Korean chip manufacturer SK Hynix hit a potential roadblock when residents’ concerns motivated city officials to think twice about a zoning request for the massive project.
The West Lafayette City Council ultimately approved the zoning request 6-3 early Tuesday morning after a seven-hour public meeting, saying the project is a great opportunity that can’t be missed.
SK Hynix, a top international producer of highly sought-after advanced microchips, announced in April 2024 that it would build its first U.S. semiconductor packaging facility at the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette.
However, after a host of community meetings, residents against the project at the proposed site urged their city councilors to reject the request. They said the proposed plot of land would be too close to homes and also raises issues about chemical waste, traffic and transparency.
“This is a once-in-a-generational opportunity to secure a better future for West Lafayette and Purdue,” said Jeremy Slater, Purdue Research Foundation vice president of real estate and partnerships.
The final debate and vote elicited a strong reaction from residents still in attendance at the council meeting, which stretched well past 1 a.m. The couple of dozen remaining attendees shouted and booed before walking out.
The council delayed its vote on the rezoning request for more than a month after intense pushback from constituents who disagree with the project’s placement.
The area’s plan commission, which is the first body to vet changes to land designations, recommended, by a 9-5 vote, that the city council reject SK Hynix’s and Purdue Research Foundation’s request for the 121-acre lot.
A half-dozen Purdue University and SK Hynix officials rotated speaking to the council to answer a bevy of questions they still had on the project. Their questions echoed the concerns of the community, touching on the location choice, environmental factors, additional partner development and the depth of community engagement.
Compromise
The Purdue Research Foundation and SK Hynix said Monday afternoon that they had made a compromise that would strip industrial development from the plans for an ancillary supply-chain-focused campus.
SK Hynix seeks to build a 430,000-square-foot manufacturing campus on 121 acres bordering the 750-acre Purdue Research Park. This plot required city council approval for the zoning to be changed from a residential lot to heavy industrial, a necessary switch for the project to move forward at the site.
Under the compromise announced Monday afternoon, the 90-acre lot next to SK Hynix’s campus intended for supply chain partners would be developed for office and research instead of industry. The council approved the measure 8-1 shortly afterward.
Slater said the compromise responds to community feedback. He said there will be less industry development in the area than what was previously planned.
A landmark investment
Landing the SK Hynix investment in West Lafayette was a major win for both state and federal officials.
Following the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act authored by Indiana’s U.S. Sen. Todd Young, the federal government has sought to onshore microchip production largely for national security purposes. The CHIPS Act set aside $280 billion to fund the industry’s U.S. development.
The deal required a heavy financial package. SK Hynix could receive $458 million in federal CHIPS Act funding and $700 million in state incentives, which was the largest economic development incentives package in Indiana history when the development was announced. To receive the full award, the company must hit certain development milestones.
SK Hynix is a global leader in microchip manufacturing, bringing in $30.4 billion in revenue in 2024. The company said the West Lafayette facility would produce and research next-generation high-bandwidth-memory, or HBM, chips—critical components of graphic processing units that train artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT.
The company said the campus, which is expected to open in the second half of 2028, would eventually hire more than 1,000 employees by 2030. Purdue officials also expect the supply chain to follow SK Hynix to the city and bring thousands more jobs.
Community uproar
Residents were lined up outside City Hall an hour before the Monday’s meeting to wait for one of the seats in the council chamber, which has a capacity of 120. Many held signs saying “No heavy industry” and “Wrong site.”
The council chambers and three overflow rooms were at capacity as the meeting commenced, Council President Larry Leverenz said. More people were waiting outside.
In nearly 5 hours of public comment, about 70 residents, many Purdue University professors, testified in opposition and were largely focused on the potential negative health impact from a heavy industrial project placed so close to a neighborhood.
About 20 people testified in support, citing the promise of new jobs and positive economic development activity. Many of those were also Purdue professors.
SK Hynix and Purdue held three community meetings to answer questions and attempt to alleviate concerns. But more than 2,700 people signed a petition asking city officials to prevent heavy industry on the lot. Petition organizers listed air and noise pollution, traffic congestion, declining property values and incompatible land use as reasons they opposed the development on the selected lot.
The petition said they are not against economic development, but they prefer the SK Hynix campus to be placed along the U.S. 231 corridor near similar large industrial buildings.
SK Hynix told online newsletter Based in Lafayette, Indiana that “there are no viable alternative sites within West Lafayette aside from the current location.” The company’s statement said that requiring it to look outside West Lafayette would set back the project to its early stages.
Purdue Research Foundation and SK Hynix officials said, if the project didn’t receive the rezoning designation at the site, it would have to restart the process, including site selection, which could have put CHIPS funding and the company’s Indiana investment at risk.
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Not at all surprising. Lafayette & Bloomington are bastions of hard core lefties who oppose just about everything. Major manufacturers would be best served to look elsewhere in the state for locations for their facilities.
And this would have been welcomed in Carmel, Westfield, or Fishers?!? I suspect those monied classes would have hired lawyers to tie this up for years.
I don’t know all of the details, but sometimes the wrong spit is the wrong spot, especially if heavy industry is going in next to residential.