OCIDA clears way for Micron plant in Clay with findings statement approval
The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency approved its findings statement for Micron’s proposed semiconductor plant in Clay on Tuesday, the final step needed to comply with the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act. Lars Jendruschewitz | Senior Staff Photographer
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The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency approved its findings statement for Micron Technology’s proposed semiconductor plant in Clay on Tuesday. The statement completes a two-year environmental review that has delayed the project.
OCIDA unanimously voted to pass the 325-page findings statement, which allows Micron to start clearing the site for construction after obtaining permits from other agencies. The statement is the last step needed for the project to comply with the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act.
The statement comes a day after its scheduled deadline, which OCIDA Deputy County Executive Robert Petrovich declared on Nov. 7 after the agency passed the project’s final Environmental Impact Statement.
OCIDA also voted to grant $5.6 million in sales, property and construction tax breaks to Micron, on top of $22 billion in federal subsidies already granted to the project. Taxpayers will subsidize about 40% of Micron’s first phase of the project, the company confirmed in June 2024.
In the findings statement, OCIDA said the project will have “irreversible” impacts on the environment but will limit its environmental effects to the “maximum extent practicable.”
Micron, however, still needs permission from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build over the site’s 200 acres of wetlands. The project also needs approval from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which Petrovich told syracuse.com would come around mid-December.
The company plans to construct the site’s first of four fabrication plants by 2030, two to three years later than originally planned. The project was announced in 2022 and promised to provide 50,000 jobs, 9,000 of which are considered high-paying jobs.
The four fabrication plants are expected to be completed by 2041.
Micron still plans to start clearing the site in Clay — which includes 500 acres of forest — in December, claiming it will take four months to complete. The company needs to clear all trees by March 31, syracuse.com reported, because of two species of endangered bats that live on the premises and nest during the spring.
Continuing with the project, OCIDA will hold a public hearing Thursday in Clay on Micron’s eviction of a 91-year-old woman and its seizure of the right of way on two other parcels of land.
