Fight over $400M grain terminal turns to ‘corrupt zoning’

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Descendants of people enslaved in Louisiana are seeking to keep a $400 million grain terminal out of their community by asking a state court to abolish what they call the land’s corrupt rezoning. It was rezoned for heavy industry in 1990 as part of a deal that fell through and sent a former parish president to prison. Some of the land is now owned by a museum casting a cold eye on slavery. The lawsuit filed Tuesday says the Whitney Plantation museum would be hurt by the facility. Greenfield Louisiana LLC says the terminal would be “the cleanest, safest and most-efficient way to support U.S. farmers.”