NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Opponents of a $400 million grain terminal planned in a small Louisiana community may continue their challenge to zoning they contend was granted decades ago to further a corrupt plot, a state judge ruled Wednesday.
But state District Judge J. Sterling Snowdy refused to give the immediate ruling requested by opponents who include descendants of people enslaved between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
“He did not throw out the case entirely. He said it was of significant importance to the community,” Lou Buatt, who represents Greenfield Louisiana LLC, the company that wants to build the terminal, said afterward.
Rather, he said, the judge said opponents couldn't use “a procedure that is supposed to be quick and easy and fast that doesn't have a trial.”
“The good news is that our lawsuit can proceed,” Joy Banner, one of the opposition leaders, said in a livestreamed video after the hearing in Edgard, seat of St. John the Baptist Parish. “We were asking for the zoning to be thrown out today. That was a big ask.”
The zoning was changed in 1990, when Formosa Plastics Corp. wanted to build a rayon plant there. Six years later, former parish President Lester Millet Jr. was convicted of extortion, money laundering and a racketeering-related charge connected with the sale of land to Formosa.
Formosa had dropped its plans in 1992, partly because of public opposition and partly because of Millet's activities, a federal appeals court wrote in upholding Millet's conviction and five-year prison term.
Millet “was convicted 25 years ago. So they’ve had 25 years to address the zoning issue,” Buatt said.
He said he thinks that since Greenfield can now present its side, it can win without a trial, based on written arguments.
Greenfield is connected to San Francisco investor Christopher Medlock James, whose Engine No. 1 investment firm unseated three ExxonMobil board members earlier this year.
The company says its grain elevator, loading terminal and 54 silos, said the project would be clean, safe and provide more than 100 jobs while exceeding air quality standards.
Wallace residents see the project “as a grave threat not only to their health and way of life but to the very existence of their community,” said a news release Wednesday from the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the opponents.
The board that runs nearby Whitney Plantation and Museum, which casts a cold eye on slavery, also opposes the plans. The miles of sugarcane fields nearby “show visitors in a visceral way the immense pain of sugar plantation labor,” a Dec. 6 statement said. ”The construction of the grain terminal would permanently change this and forever destroy this cultural landscape."