A large car-shredding operation on the Southeast Side would be a threat to residents’ health and should not open, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration argued in a court filing Wednesday.
The city also reiterated that it was justified in denying an operating permit that was sought by the owner of Southside Recycling, the rebranded business formerly known as General Iron.
The filing in the Circuit Court of Cook County is aimed at convincing Judge Allen Walker to deny Southside Recycling’s request to force the city’s health department to immediately issue a permit allowing the fully built metal-shredder to operate at East 116th Street along the Calumet River.
Last month, the business asked the judge in its own filing to order Chicago officials to allow Southside Recycling to open. Its reason: A city administrative hearings process earlier this year found that the city didn’t follow its own rules in a permitting process that ultimately barred the metal shredder from opening.
While arguing that it was justified turning down the operation, City Hall also said that the business has an incorrect interpretation of what happened during the administrative hearings appeal.
“Southside Recycling has it all wrong,” lawyers said in their filing.
During a years-long campaign, community organizers, joined by health and environmental advocates, urged former Mayor Lori Lightfoot to deny the business from operating on the Southeast Side. The heavily industrial area is polluted and suffers from poor air quality and adding another polluting business would make neighbors sick, advocates argued.
Mayor Johnson has said the city had a right to deny the permit, and City Hall lawyers reiterated the concerns about public health in the court filing this week.
“Southside Recycling wishes to immediately commence a heavy industrial operation that will cause the harmful impacts on local residents that [the health department] found would occur,” the city said in its filing.
In a separate court filing Thursday, lawyers for environmental organizations that oppose the business echoed concerns about harm to the community and noted the concerns around the city’s role moving General Iron from mostly white, wealthy Lincoln Park to an East Side location in a Latino community surrounded by Black neighborhoods.
The concerns were the basis for a federal civil rights investigation that resulted in findings that the city engaged in discriminatory land-use, planning and zoning practices.
Before she left office, Lightfoot signed a binding agreement with President Joe Biden’s administration promising that the city will change its practices.
“We live under the constant threat of this massive industrial facility coming online,” said Olga Bautista, a Southeast Side activist who was part of the federal civil rights complaint brought against the city.
Brett Chase’s reporting on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.
