Gary council rejects rezoning for former school

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Updated: February 19, 2012 8:17AM

GARY — Eclipse Charter and Tours will be moving by the end of the month, but it won’t be staying in Gary after the Common Council turned down its bid for a zoning change.

The council voted unanimously to reject the zone change during Tuesday night’s council meeting in a vote that thrilled residents in the former Beckman School neighborhood but convinced Larry E. Webb, Eclipse’s owner, and his attorney, Darnail Lyles, that the talk of eliminating red tape for city businesses is just that.

“This isn’t about me, it’s about the city moving forward,” Webb said after the 9-0 defeat. “There’s no change.

“The company’s going to be moving Jan. 30 regardless, whether it’s Beckman or anywhere but Gary.”

Last year, Lew Management purchased the old Beckman Middle School for $100,000. Webb, of Gary, runs a transportation company that includes Eclipse Charters and Tours, Eclipse Limousine Service and Larry E. Webb Construction Co. and said his business property, now at 9340 Melton Road, was purchased by the National Park Service.

Webb saw promise in the building, even though vandals ripped out large chunks of the school’s concrete walls to steal aluminum, furnace parts and bathroom fixtures. His various companies provide jobs for about 19 full-time employees, all from Gary. Since purchasing the school, Webb said he’s put $500,000 worth of improvements into it.

Lyles said the ruling sets a precedent not just for the city, but for the Gary Community School Corp. By rejecting Eclipse Charters from moving into the neighborhood, the corporation has pigeonholed itself into selling its vacant and abandoned school buildings only to schools.

“How many more charter schools are going to move into Gary, and when they do, they’re building their own schools. Charter of the Dunes is building its own,” Lyles said. “This is a shortsighted answer to a long-term problem.”

But council members said they couldn’t discount the residents, many of whom are elderly, who cited safety concerns and increased pollution to the neighborhood if Eclipse were allowed to bring in its 13 school buses, four charter buses, three limousines and one van.

“It’s not that we’re opposed to businesses coming in, but they could’ve gone to the old Gillespie building or old TriState building,” said Council Vice President Kim Robinson, D-5th, whose district includes the Beckman School neighborhood. “It’s unfortunate the 5th District School Board member (LaBrenda King-Smith) didn’t bring this to us prior.”

“But these people pay taxes, so I have to be responsible to them.”

Councilman Roy Pratt, D-at-large, said a business couldn’t go into Merrillville, Hobart or Whiting and expect a zone change in a residential area. And they wouldn’t dare go into Gary’s Miller section, either.

“They may not be the fanciest homes in the neighborhood, but they’re theirs,” Pratt said.