Communities of color, specifically Black Americans, face environmental harms at a far greater rate than white communities. While recent efforts to address this disparity have increased as the Environmental Justice Movement becomes more mainstream, the issue is too deeply ingrained in America’s discriminatory housing and land use practices to be addressed separately from housing and land use discrimination. When the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) spent the decade following the Great Depression creating and using color-coded maps of mortgage lending security, it further segregated communities of color and denied them access to federal lending and property ownership. To effect lasting change in environmental justice communities, legal advocates must recognize the intertwined nature of housing discrimination and environmental justice and address the issues accordingly. This paper aims to explore the lasting impact of these HOLC map designations on minority communities in Chicago, IL. Specifically, it aims to identify how these map designations have shaped industrial development siting and local land use decisions. By looking at one of America’s most segregated cities, this paper will analyze its history of housing discrimination and land use decision-making practices and suggest incorporating sustainable development and land use considerations into environmental legal advocacy.