A Colorado-based company may proceed with its ground-penetrating, pre-construction activities for a $400 million grain elevator it plans to build in a rural, majority Black area in St. John the Baptist Parish, a judge ruled Friday.

Judge J. Sterling Snowdy, of the 40th Judicial District Court in LaPlace, allowed the company, Greenfield Louisiana, LLC, to commence pre-construction activities as a lawsuit currently before the court – in which a pair of St. John residents, twin sisters Jo and Joy Banner, have asked the court to nullify a 32-year-old ordinance that allows for heavy industrial use on a tract of land in Wallace, Louisiana – continues.