Azalea King moved to a house in upstate Recent York, surrounded by extensive cattle pastures, around 1965, around the time mass production of the world’s first microchips began. Now, 60 years later, the 91-year-old is on the verge of losing her home to make way for the largest chip manufacturing elaborate in the US.
Local authorities have threatened to employ their power of eminent domain or seize land for public employ to forcibly uproot King and continue construction of a $100 billion campus where U.S. tech giant Micron plans to produce memory chips for employ in a variety of electronic devices. King’s house was the only remaining residence on a 1,400-acre plot that had previously housed dozens of other homes.
Last Friday, after a week of intense negotiations, legal threats and community protests, the King family agreed to a settlement with local officials regarding her move, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced. The terms of the contract will not be known until the county Industrial Development Agency votes to finalize it, which will likely happen in mid-December. Earlier this year, the county agency offered $100,000, while the family asked for $10 million, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported. reported.
“Both sides felt it was time,” McMahon, who has become personally involved in the talks over the past few days, said during press conference broadcast live last Friday. “This is all driven by a national security project that will transform this community for generations to come. It’s hard. No one wanted to be essentially where we were.”
Scott Lickstein, King’s attorney, tells WIRED that her lawsuit against the county last week helped speed up talks and that reaching an agreement was beneficial to all parties. “He will remain in the community,” Lickstein says. Several of King’s relatives did not respond to requests for comment on the deal.
Micron has said it wants to start work in Clay, north of Syracuse, next month. What a company cannot continue with the project until King leaves her house. There is already a delay of two to three years, and full chip production is not expected until 2045.
Construction is part of a federal effort launched under the Biden administration to escalate domestic production of computer chips and reduce the country’s dependence on Asian production. Grants for the project could total about $25 billion, according to federal, state and local data activists fighting against certain tax breaks. “You can’t achieve a historic investment and one house” – McMahon he said last week. “These two things can’t happen together.”