Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Aureilia Giacometto announces the U.S. Department of Interior has withdrawn historic district eligibility for a portion of the River Parishes during a news conference Feb. 18, 2025, at the Port of South Louisiana. St. John the Baptist President Jaclyn Hotard, left, and port chief executive Paul Matthews listen. (Image from Port of South Louisiana video)
The Trump administration has removed eligibility for an 11-mile section of the River Parishes to become a historic district in response to a request from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.
The historic designation came out of a failed attempt to build an $800 million grain terminal on the west bank of St. John the Baptist Parish near the Wallace community, which traces its founding back to the Black Union soldiers who founded it after the Civil War. The area also includes a number of plantation sites and Black communities that trace their origins back to the enslaved people who worked the fields.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers submitted the area for National Register eligibility to the Department of Interior, which granted it last October. The corps review took place while it considered permits for the terminal project.
LDEQ Secretary Aurelia Giacometto said the agency approached the White House eight days after President Donald Trump returned to office. Last Thursday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum informed the Army Corps of Engineers the historic designation was withdrawn, she said.
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Giacometto, who was U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency secretary in Trump’s first term, called the canceled distinction “onerous federal oversight” from President Joe Biden. It would have created the Greater River Road Historic District and the adjacent Community of Wallace Historic District on a stretch spanning St. John and St. James parishes.
“This removes undue federal overreach and thus enables the river parishes to again attract business development and generally improve the lives of this area,” Giacometto said at a news conference Tuesday held at the Port of South Louisiana.
The port had provided a sizable tax break to Greenfield Holdings, the company that proposed the grain terminal. Lynda Van Davis, head of external affairs for Greenfield, said the business still plans an unspecified development for the 1,700-acre site it owns in West St. John, although it’s no longer involved in grain shipments.
Wallace natives and twin sisters Jo and Joy Banner, co-founders of the Descendants Project, have been the most outspoken opponents of the grain terminal project. They said they weren’t aware of the Interior Department’s decision to kill the historic districts until just before Tuesday’s news conference at the port.
In a virtual news conference Tuesday evening, Joy Banner said it was “unusual and very strange” that LDEQ – and not a historic preservation organization – asked for the historic district designation to be re-examined.
“For me, this signals that the intent to come in and pollute our communities is … everyone’s number one intention,” she said.
The Banners have led the fight to stop the Greenfield project, filing a lawsuit for the $4 million they say the company owes the parish in taxes. Joy Banner also sued St. John Parish President Jaclyn Hotard and Parish Council President Michael Wright for threatening to have Banner arrested during the public comments portion of a 2023 council meeting.
Hotard took part in the port news conference and made reference to the Banners’ court actions.
“Not only will the River Region not be bullied by burdensome bureaucracies, we will not be bullied by the continuous filing of frivolous lawsuits,” Hotard said. “Frivolous lawsuits scare industry away that would want to invest in a community.”
Joy Banner said she will appeal the court ruling against her in the First Amendment lawsuit involving Hotard and Wright.
Giacommetto noted the two River Parishes historic districts would have encompassed more than 27,000 acres, an area she said would be among the largest of its kind in the country.
St. James Parish President Pete Dufresne said the districts are nearly equal to the size of Disney World.
The National Park Service, which has oversight of federal historic sites, does not compile information on the area of historic districts, which number in the thousands.
The Banners said the Interior Department’s actions, followed by Giacometto’s news conference, will not deter their efforts to thwart industrial development in West St. John and other communities along the river. The sisters stressed the high rates of terminal illness among Black communities in the heavily industrialized area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge known as “Cancer Alley.”
“I’m not looking at my community in terms of acreage,” Joy Banner said. “I’m looking at my community in terms of people that I love. I’m looking at it in terms of place. I’m looking at it in terms of my heritage, my culture, the potential right for us as small businesses, as residents here, to build a better, cleaner future while protecting our history.”
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