The relocated General Iron metal-shredding operation on the Southeast Side will remain closed for the time being, a judge ruled Thursday.

Cook County Circuit Judge Allen Walker rejected a request by the company that owns the operation at East 116th Street by the Calumet River to open for business after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot blocked it last year. 

Lightfoot acted after Southeast Side residents protested the move of General Iron from Lincoln Park to East Side, saying they can’t take any more air pollution. 

In June, a city administrative hearings judge ruled that Lightfoot and her public health department didn’t follow rules when it denied the permit for the operation, which is now rebranded Southside Recycling. 

The next month, the business’ owner asked Judge Walker to order the city to allow the shredding site to open, a request Mayor Brandon Johnson is fighting. 

The company, after signing an agreement with Lightfoot, built a new scrap metal operation at the East Side location.

The operation was never allowed to open.

The delay in the process and the blocked permit has been the subject of multiple lawsuits. 

That proposed move also became the focus of a federal civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that concluded the city has discriminatory planning and land-use practices and policies. 

Mayor Johnson has pledged to reform its policies under a binding agreement with the feds and recently announced a plan to introduce an environmental protection ordinance later this year.