Greenfield Louisiana

An aerial view of Wallace, La. A grain elevator planned to the left of the neighborhood pictured was canceled by the company on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024.

Plans for controversial St. John grain elevator scrapped after years of permitting delays

Halle Parker

Greenfield Exports LLC canceled plans to build a grain elevator in St. John the Baptist Parish after a lengthy permit process with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Members of the Sunrise Movement protest a proposed grain terminal in St. John the Baptist Parish on May 15, 2021 alongside residents citing environmental justice concerns.

Coastal Desk

Judge halts industrial rezoning for proposed grain elevator site in St. John Parish

Delaney Dryfoos (The Lens)

Land on the parish’s West Bank intended as the location for the Greenfield Grain Terminal will remain residential until the court orders otherwise.

A drone captures an aerial view of a predominantly Black neighborhood in Wallace, Louisiana and the neighboring farmland slated for industrial development by an agricultural company.

Coastal Desk

A Louisiana judge ended a decades-old zoning ordinance in St. John. The parish wants it back.

Halle Parker

Three weeks after a state judge struck down a controversial zoning law, St. John the Baptist Parish Council is considering reinstating the same law to allow the construction of a $479 million grain elevator.

A crowd made up of community, historic preservation and environmental advocates gathered on the levee in front of St. John the Baptist Parish Courthouse to rally around the west bank of St. John landing on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's most endangered historic places list.

Coastal Desk

Activists want to keep industry out of St. John west bank. Could a historic designation help?

Halle Parker

Unlike the rest of the state’s chemical corridor, no plants have been built on St. John the Baptist Parish's west bank. But some residents fear that could change as industrial developers eye farmland near the predominantly Black community of Wallace. As part of an effort to slow industrial encroachment and preserve the community’s history, federal officials are now contemplating whether St. John’s west bank could earn one of the country’s most prestigious historic designations: a National Historic Landmark.

A sign opposing a proposed grain elevator in Wallace sits in front of Fee-Fo-Lay Cafe, a coffee shop owned by the founders of the Descendants Project, on Thursday, April 21, 2022.

Coastal Desk

St. John nonprofit sues Port of South Louisiana over open meetings law, tax break

Halle Parker

The Port of South Louisiana has come under fire over new allegations of violating Louisiana’s open meetings law in a lawsuit filed last week.

A view from the levee of the farmland buffering the residents of Wallace from the proposed site of a grain terminal planned by Greenfield Louisiana, LLC on Thursday, April 21, 2022.

Coastal Desk

$200M tax break for St. John grain terminal raises concerns over legality of loophole

Halle Parker

One local nonprofit has raised questions over the legitimacy – and legality – of a tax break between the Port of South Louisiana and a planned grain terminal in St. John Parish.

Coastal Desk

Lawsuit over $479M grain terminal in St. John to continue after court denies company's appeal

Halle Parker

A lawsuit looking to block the construction of a $479 million grain elevator on St. John the Baptist Parish’s west bank will move forward after a three-judge panel denied an appeal by the company behind the project.

Coastal Desk

After 'insufficient' report, Corps to take closer look at grain terminal’s impact on historic sites

Halle Parker

A report conducted by a company looking to construct a grain terminal in St. John the Baptist Parish is facing increased scrutiny by federal agencies and will need to be redone to assess how the $479 million project would affect nearby historic sites.

A trailer sits in the road off West 7th Street in Wallace, Louisiana on Thursday, April 21, 2022. To the left, steel pilings stand where a proposed grain terminal would be constructed. To the right, houses of a predominantly Black neighborhood stand. Some residents oppose the grain terminal, wary of the industrial facility's impacts to health and the land.

Coastal Desk

Concerned about unmarked graves, St. John group asks for grain terminal construction to stop

Halle Parker

A St. John Parish group wants the court to stop any digging on property at the center of an ongoing legal battle that’s slated for the construction of a $400 million grain terminal.

Coastal Desk

Amid push to block grain elevator, suit over zoning change moves forward in St. John Parish

Halle Parker

A lawsuit looking to overturn a decades-old zoning change in St. John the Baptist Parish and block the construction of a $400 million grain terminal will move forward after a hearing in the 19th Judicial District Court on Thursday morning.