The Gary Common Council on June 17 approved multiple special-use permits for auto-related businesses and a home daycare, and sent three other zoning items back to the planning and development committee for additional review.

The council passed CPO 2025-32, a special-use permit for 2557 Colfax Street to allow mechanical and auto body work, after the planning department's attorney summarized Board of Zoning Appeals support and the council added conditions including a privacy fence and a limit on inoperable vehicles. Councilman Whittington praised the 10-vehicle maximum as a potential precedent.

Why it matters: the decisions affect neighborhood use, vehicle storage and visual impacts at commercial properties and set conditions for operation. The council also approved permits for light manufacturing at 2601 East 15th Avenue (CPO 2025-33) and a home daycare at 2658 East 20th Place (CPO 2025-37).

Attorney Molina summarized the BZA findings for multiple items and referenced the BZA's unanimous favorable recommendations on several petitions. For 2557 Colfax (CPO 2025-32) the council adopted an amendment that added two conditions: installation and maintenance of a privacy fence facing Colfax Street and a prohibition on storing more than 10 inoperable vehicles on site. The amendment to CPO 2025-32 passed in an earlier roll call (recorded as 7 yes, 1 no); the ordinance as amended passed final reading 8-0.

CPO 2025-33 (2601 East 15th Avenue) was amended to correct a typographical code reference and then passed 8-0. CPO 2025-34 (3930 West Fifth Avenue) and CPO 2025-38 (4900 West Fifth Avenue) were both referred back to the Planning and Development Committee with meetings scheduled for June 24 at 5:45 p.m.; both referrals passed 8-0. CPO 2025-37, a home daycare permit for Betty Cole Cummings at 2658 East 20th Place, received a favorable BZA recommendation and passed 8-0 on final reading.

What's next: referred items will be considered at the planning committee meeting on June 24; enacted permits will be subject to the conditions the council adopted and to any building and business licensing requirements.