We’ve put together this Q & A to answer some of the questions about AMD's relocation to Southwest Austin:

Q) What is AMD and what’s going on with them?

A) Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is one of the leading computer chip manufacturers in the United States. They are headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, but they also have about 3,000 employees located in Austin. They are proposing to move their Austin campus to Southwest Austin into the Barton Springs watershed.

Q) Why do people oppose AMD’s decision to move their offices to West Austin?

A) AMD has chosen a site in Southwest Austin known as the Lantana tract. The area is in the very fragile Barton Springs watershed. For more than 25 years, the Austin community has worked to discourage major employers from locating in our water quality protection zones, and instead encouraged them to locate in the Desired Development Zone (DDZ).

Although AMD is Austin’s sixth largest employer, they are ignoring the long-standing tradition to respect the desire of Austin citizens to protect our cherished springs and creeks.

Q) Who is opposing AMD’s move?

A) So far, these organizations are asking AMD to reconsider their decision:

In addition to these groups, over 17,000 of your friends and neighbors have signed the online petition asking AMD to reconsider their move.

Q) AMD says they have met with all the environmental and community stakeholders to make sure the project is acceptable to everyone who will be affected.

A) This is simply not true. In fact, the SOS Alliance requested a meeting with AMD in February when it first became known that AMD was looking for a new location. AMD responded this way:

…because we have not made a decision about a specific site, we believe it is premature to discuss potential locations at this time. As our plans develop, we will be happy to include you in discussions…

So as you can see, even though the community was reaching out to AMD to provide input in the site-selection process, AMD was dismissing it.

Well after AMD chose their location, they did attend a Save Barton Creek Association meeting. The room was full of community and environmental leaders, none of whom were ever involved in significant discussions with AMD prior to their announcement to move to Lantana.

AMD continues to say that they are working with environmental leaders, but they have not identified who those leaders are.

Q) AMD says they are meeting the SOS Ordinance rules. What more could you ask for?

A) This is not true, either. They have not agreed to all of the SOS water quality rules. They plan to exceed the impervious cover requirements of the SOS ordinance, which were the scientific basis of the ordinance in the first place. They are relying on a failed development in 1984 to claim the right to build at higher impervious cover levels than would be allowed under current regulations.

Q) AMD says they’re meeting all of the City of Austin’s requirements for development on the Lantana tract. Isn’t that enough?

A) AMD and the developer, Stratus Properties, are relying on “grandfather” claims from preliminary plan development applications filed by bankrupt developers in 1984 to claim a “right” to build at substantially greater impervious cover levels than allowed under the SOS ordinance. They are taking advantage of state laws that were passed as special favors for developers to get out of following the stricter current Austin water quality laws.

Q) But AMD is a great corporate citizen. They do a lot of good things for Austin. Why not let them move there? Wouldn’t they do a better job of protecting the environment than other businesses?

A) AMD has done some good things in Austin. But this decision is a slap in the face to everyone in Austin who has worked to protect water quality for the past 30 years. And AMD was well aware that there would be opposition to this decision - that’s why they didn’t want to meet with the environmental leaders in town.

Q) There is already so much development in the area where they want to move. New development is happening all the time. The growth is going to happen anyway, why not let AMD build there?

A) AMD will immediately bring 2,000-3,000 employees to an area that needs to be protected. Other developments are not likely to have this sort of impact.

For over 25 years, the community has worked and invested resources to discourage major employers from locating in the Barton Springs Zone. Vast amounts of money have been spent to buy land to be protected, and to invest in infrastructure in the Desired Development Zone to encourage companies to locate there. State Highway 130 and other infrastructure is under construction now to support the growth anticipated in desired areas.

If AMD locates at Lantana, it will break the tradition of companies respecting the will of the community and choosing to locate in desired areas. This will open the floodgates for development in the exact area where the people have said over and over that they do not want it.

What kind of message does it send to other companies about locating in the DDZ? If AMD moves here, why shouldn’t Samsung or EBay? They are both respectable companies.

Q) Isn’t AMD donating $5 million to buy land to offset their development? Isn’t that good enough?

A) Sure, it is a nice gesture, but it is not near enough to offset the potential for damage that will occur.

Also, AMD’s announcement to move to Southwest Austin has caused a huge spike in land prices, making it even more difficult to buy sensitive tracts of land to protect them.

Q) What about all the traffic reduction that will happen because of this move?

A) Although they have not released their traffic study that would validate their claims, there is sufficient evidence to suggest their numbers are being manipulated.

Regardless, the number of miles driven over the aquifer by AMD employees triples with this move.

There are better and cheaper places in Austin to locate that are just as nice. And there are many spots that would be as good or better for commuting for AMD employees.

Q) AMD says they will do “green building.” Isn’t that a good thing?

A) Sure, green building can be a good thing. But most of what green building standards encompass are energy improvements. Green building will not address the issues that come with locating a major employer over the aquifer.

The first step of building green is to choose an appropriate location. They have failed at step 1.

Q) What about Motorola? They are located in the same area - why didn’t anyone oppose them locating over the aquifer?

A) People did oppose Motorola when they moved to Oak Hill in 1981. Motorola ignored a new city master plan when they moved, and much of the growth out there was a result of Motorola’s decision to locate there.

But, more recently, the city provided $30 million in incentives to pursuade Freescale (Motorola’s new name) not only to stay in Austin, but to move their headquarters to the DDZ.

Q) Aren’t all the neighborhoods surrounding Lantana looking forward to the move?

A) No. The topic has proven to be a very controversial one in the area neighborhoods. A couple of business-oriented organizations have endorsed the idea. They would like to see the Oak Hill area turn into a “satellite downtown” and encourage more development in the area to turn it into a regional hub.

Envision Central Texas is a process in which 12,000 people participated to answer questions about how they would like to see future growth occur in Central Texas. The participants consistently chose growth scenarios that would place growth away from the Edwards Aquifer. Not only is AMD’s decision a slap in the face to ECT, but they now twisting the ECT vision to support their move.

Q) If AMD can’t move to Lantana, where can they go? They said they looked at all the available space in town and none meets there requirements.

A) There are better and cheaper places in Austin to locate that are just as nice. And there are many spots that would be as good or better for commuting for AMD employees. AMD management has chosen the Lantana site for some reason and has buried their head in the sand.

Q) Why hasn’t AMD been more forthcoming about their true motivations and worked with the community instead against it?

A) That’s a good question. However they did begin the process by hiring PR firm Martin & Salinas, whose other notorious clients have included:

AMD is proving with this decision that they are not the responsible Austin citizen that we thought they were.