Judge allows pre-construction activity for $400 million grain elevator in historic, majority-Black part of St. John Paris

June 3, 2022
The Lens NOLA

...“Obviously we’re disappointed in the ruling,” Pam Spees, senior staff attorney at the Center For Constitutional Rights who’s helping to represent the Descendants Project told The Lens. “This insistence that we should be able to show where a gravesite is in order to prevent harm” is unreasonable, she said, adding that the institution of slavery itself prevents the plaintiffs knowing exactly where the gravsites are located. 

Greenfield bought the tract of land at issue in 2021 for $40 million. The company plans to build an enormous grain elevator on the property that would have included 54 grain silos and a conveyor belt. The Descendants Project sued the parish – located in the corridor along the Mississippi River Baton Rouge and New Orleans referred to as “Cancer Alley” because of its high levels of industrial pollution —  in November in order to nullify the zoning ordinance upon which the construction would rely.  ...

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Last modified 

June 8, 2022