Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Administration denied to federal investigators that it helped General Iron’s owner relocate its car-shredding operation to the Southeast Side from Lincoln Park, despite a previous agreement to assist in the company’s “expeditious transition” to the new location.
“The proposed expansion is not a relocation of General Iron’s operation at North Clifton but an entirely distinct effort undertaken by a different entity,” city lawyers wrote to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this week.
The letter, dated Tuesday, defends the city’s actions as HUD officials continue their investigation into whether the Lightfoot Administration violated Southeast Side residents’ civil rights. Advocacy groups have accused the city of helping move a polluting nuisance to a Latino-majority neighborhood to make way for a $6 billion residential and retail development in the mostly white and affluent Lincoln Park. The new facility being built at East 116th along the Calumet River still needs a final city permit to operate.
“Complainants unfortunately seek to exploit the demonstrably false narrative that the City has facilitated General Iron’s ‘relocation’ to mount claims of racially discriminatory housing practices,” the city lawyers said in a letter asking HUD to drop its investigation.
The argument that General Iron isn’t technically moving to the Southeast Side has been made by business owner Reserve Management Group, which is renaming the metal-shredder operation after acquiring it shortly after a September 2019 agreement with the city. Community groups have noted that the Lightfoot Administration agreed to assist in the process.
“The City will reasonably cooperate with RMG in achieving the efficient, expeditious transition of the Business to the Southside Properties, including reasonable assistance with processing and review of license and permit applications and scheduling of public hearings,” according to the 2019 agreement.
In its letter this week, the city said that RMG is building a new Southeast Side shredding operation that will be mostly enclosed and have better safeguards than the existing open-air General Iron site on North Clifton in Lincoln Park.
“RMG is seeking to utilize new and advanced technology that is designed to minimize environmental impact,” the letter, signed by Deputy Corporation Counsel John Hendricks and two other lawyers, stated.
In their letter, the lawyers emphasize that the city’s Department of Public Health still has to approve the permit needed for RMG’s new shredding facility, rebranded Southside Recycling. HUD has asked the city to hold off on granting that permit while it investigates the claims of discrimination.
“The city has been working diligently to ensure that RMG is held to a high standard for the protection of the surrounding community,” a city spokeswoman said in a statement to the Sun-Times. “RMG’s permit application is currently under thorough review.”
Despite a history of citations at General Iron’s Lincoln Park operation, the city argued that it is “speculative” to suggest the new Southeast Side facility will also pose problems for residents. RMG has said it expects a rigorous review from the city.
One of the Southeast Side residents who brought the complaint to HUD said the relocation of a car-shredding operation follows a long pattern of discriminatory zoning and land-use practices in Chicago, a trend that the Lightfoot Administration has referenced.
“The city needs to come to terms with the environmental racism that has hurt communities of color for decades,” Peggy Salazar, director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force said in a statement. “Our neighborhood continues to accumulate toxic industry that is dumped on our lap while more affluent and mostly white neighborhoods see a very different type of development.”
Brett Chase’s reporting on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.
