Gary Details Plans for Former Landfill Site

The city of Gary is looking to transform a former landfill and EPA Superfund site into a modern business park. Our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana report officials plan to use the majority of the Lake Sandy Jo property to potentially build a warehouse or distribution facility.

Lake Sandy Jo, formerly known as the M&M Landfill, includes 56 acres of land that has undergone environmental remediation for nearly 40 years after it was found that the landfill’s waste was contaminating the drinking water in the area.

The publication reports the site was added to the EPA’s National Priorities List in 1983. But last spring, a portion of the site was removed from the list after soil cleanup was completed. However, the groundwater portion of the site, as well as adjacent properties, remain on the list.

The Gary Plan Commission has recommended an ordinance rezoning the land for redevelopment, which the Gary Common Council will consider during a public hearing next week. AJ Bytnar, executive director of redevelopment for the city, tells The Times construction could start as early as this fall.

“It is really exciting to transform a former dump into a site of potential jobs,” Bytnar said. “There is no reason that the development that is happening in adjacent communities cannot be happening in Gary. We’ve really been concentrating on redevelopment opportunities where they are going to be producing a tax base and jobs and safety because that helps everybody out. It has that positive compounding effect and could potentially be catalytic for other areas in the city.”

An exact use for the site has not yet been determined, but Bytnar cites the location’s access to high-speed internet and proximity to I-80/94 as conducive to a warehousing or distribution operation.