I worked about 35 years in the high-tech world and actually did some chip packaging prototyping for thermal, signal integrity, and packaging analysis. Later I worked at a software company that developed and sold software for designing ICs, PCBs, and packaging of ICs into packages, just like what Amkor does.
As a matter of fact, about 20 years ago, I did work with some folks at Amkor, and other companies, that helped me in writing product specs for our software packaging tools, specifically for packaging chips. I do understand the industry and the technology, although it’s been a few years now.
Some people in Peoria are concerned that Amkor will be polluting the environment, cause massive traffic congestion, depress home values, and that buildings will look ugly, then toss in that they are planning for a school and housing in the same area, and they’re up in arms.
If you look at Vista Winds, these building are four stories tall, and that will be the height of one of the Amkor buildings. We’ll never see Amkor from Trilogy. Right now those high tension power lines, they are maybe 125-150 feet, and we hardly notice them. People here want some nice housing to go in that location, however, they don’t think about those high tension power lines and the fact that it’s right next to a freeway. If they built homes there, they might go for $450,000, nothing like the home values in the rest of Vistancia.
Of course. accidents can happen anytime and anywhere, but environmental concerns regarding these kinds of plants have been addressed and rules are in place to mitigate it. It’s not the 1970s anymore in environmental terms.
If you drive down I-17 by Jomax and Happy Valley, they’re putting up a lot of housing there. Go down a mile or so and you’ll see modern business buildings. To me, that housing that close to the freeway is out of place, yet those business building look fine.
If you bring up Google maps and look at the Intel chip plant in Chandler, there is a ring road going all around the plant. There are two schools adjacent to that ring road, along with housing that Zillow shows going between $450,000 to almost $800,000 There are shopping areas with higher quality businesses there. It seems everything sprung up around that plant and Intel has proven to be a good neighbor.
With that said, I myself don’t think Amkor will be a negative for us in Trilogy. As a matter of fact, I see it as a positive. These will be better paying jobs with better educated workers. Over the past few years, many of the residents here complain there are no nice restaurants, shopping, and other amenities. They seem to forget that it takes other infrastructure to come in to draw in those restaurants and shopping. I sometimes think the people here just like to complain without looking at the big picture or thinking things through a bit. I’d rather see an Amkor-type business than the distribution warehouses down in the Litchfield Park area.
I see Amkor as a big plus for this area. It will draw in more business, especially the better paying high tech kinds of jobs, and also bring in the restaurants and shopping. Many here say they want this area to become another Scottsdale. I personally don’t want to see that.
