Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Administration will hold a meeting next week and is giving residents 30 days to comment on plans top open a car-shredding operation on the Southeast Side that will replace General Iron’s longtime home in Lincoln Park.
General Iron’s owner Reserve Management Group has filed an application with the city’s Department of Public Health for a final permit needed to open its car and metal-shredding business on East 116th Street along the Calumet River. The facility, which is under construction, is opposed by community groups concerned about additional pollution in an area that already suffers from poor air quality.
The city also will host a virtual public meeting at 6 p.m. Dec. 10 to discuss the process.
“I know this has been a long and complicated conversation,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady said in an interview. “There’s a community meeting scheduled and the hope really is to help explain to folks about where we are interested in input.”
One community activist said she feared an online hearing with a little more than a week’s notice may be poorly attended.
“We’ve seen low turnout to previous virtual hearings because many people do not have access to the technology needed to attend,” said Olga Bautista, a Southeast Side resident and organizer. “The city and our elected officials do very little to make sure Spanish speakers, elderly residents and others know about it and participate.”
The public comment period began Monday and will run through Dec. 30. Written comments can be submitted to envcomments@cityofchicago.org. The city also has posted RMG’s permit application and related documents online.
Public health officials are expected to post a draft of the permit online before issuing it and will take public comments for 30 days after that time, a city spokesman said.
The planned closure of the facility in white Lincoln Park and expected opening of a new operation in Latino-majority East Side has prompted charges of environmental racism. The proposed South Side shredding operation has spurred a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago and a complaint to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is investigating whether residents’ civil rights are being violated. HUD asked the city to hold off issuing the permit as the agency investigates the allegations.
In a recent letter to HUD, a city lawyer accused Southeast Side residents of “hyperbolic allegations” about the proposed operation and said that “allegations about negative environmental impact” are “factually unfounded.”
Neighbors to General Iron’s Lincoln Park location have complained for years about the dust, smell and noise from the operation. RMG settled a number of city citations related to the facility, including for an explosion in May, agreeing in early November to pay $18,000.
Past citations and allegations of violations in Lincoln Park will have no bearing on the new RMG South Side permit application, the city has said.
RMG, which will rebrand the General Iron business Southside Recycling, has said it expects a rigorous city permit process.
Brett Chase’s reporting on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.
