Newly unsealed text messages and deposition testimony allege that a New Orleans councilmember and his English Turn neighbors used racially charged language while fighting to block a 278-unit affordable apartment complex proposed for Lower Coast Algiers. The records, unsealed in federal court on Thursday, are now central to a discrimination lawsuit that has already cost the city millions in federal grant money and remains unresolved more than three years after it was filed.
Stanton Square, the company behind the proposed Village at English Turn development, sued New Orleans officials alleging the city's rejection of its project was driven by discriminatory intent rather than legitimate planning concerns, as reported by NOLA.com. Attorneys for Stanton Square say the unsealed materials show District C Councilmember Freddie King III, who represents Algiers and lives in English Turn, voted his stated discriminatory preference and that his vote and discriminatory intent carried the day when the council acted. According to the outlet's report, one text attributed to King reads, “I don't want dread heads and bonnet wear(ing) fools next to me.”
King has pushed back hard on that characterization. He said the decision was not about racial or economic discrimination and said it was solely about listening to the community, according to the same report. Per his deposition, King called the text satire and said it repeated what development proponents were saying about him, while also saying, per the deposition, that he was referring to Black men and women in the message.
What the Company Wanted to Build
The Village at English Turn was designed as a 278-unit complex with 104 one-bedroom, 126 two-bedroom, and 48 three-bedroom apartments, plus a swimming pool, playground, dog spot, and pickleball court, according to court filings reviewed by Midpage. The project would have provided apartments for renters with incomes between 60% and 100% of area median income, with family-of-four eligibility ranging from $49,200 to $98,400 in 2024. The 27-acre site had been zoned for lower-density multi-family housing since the 1980s and was designated Residential-Family Post-War under the city's 2010 Master Plan before the council intervened.
In December 2022, the New Orleans City Planning Commission had reviewed the proposal and found it in full compliance with the Master Plan, warning that restricting multi-family zoning there would limit needed housing, per Midpage's review of the filings. Despite that recommendation, the City Council sided with English Turn residents, first freezing zoning on the parcel in late 2022 and then voting on January 30, 2025, to permanently downzone the land to single-family residential, an ordinance that took effect February 9, 2025.
Allegations Involving the Developer's Owner
Stanton Square is owned by Xinhong Zhang, a naturalized U.S. citizen. English Turn Property Owners Association members referred to Zhang as “the dragon lady” and “the china woman,” according to the unsealed records described by NOLA.com, and Zhang's lawsuit alleges that residents' race-based animosity extended directly to her. English Turn residents also questioned whether Zhang intended to build affordable housing at all, the outlet reported.
The records also allege that Councilmember Janet Duroncelet discussed whether Zhang's conduct might jeopardize her immigration status in a conversation with an ICE agent, per the unsealed materials. Roy Glapion, president of the English Turn Property Owners Association, has disputed that race played any role, saying race has absolutely nothing to do with association members' concerns and describing English Turn as a melting pot of individuals. English Turn itself is a 2,000-acre gated community built in 1988 around an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course with 617 residential lots, according to the club's own materials.
Federal Involvement and a Grant the City Never Got
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in the case in 2023 and later notified city officials it would open a pattern-or-practice investigation into alleged racial discrimination, according to NOLA.com's reporting. That December 2023 filing leaned on the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, which established that local land-use decisions restricting multi-family housing can violate the Fair Housing Act under a disparate impact theory. The DOJ later filed a motion to withdraw its interest in the case in 2025, though the statement had already rendered the city ineligible for certain federal grants tied to affordable housing programs.
That ineligibility carried a real price tag. The LaToya Cantrell administration declined to apply for two competitive HUD grants worth a combined $9 million in 2024, covering rental registry improvements and mold remediation, because federal guidelines automatically disqualify municipalities with open federal civil rights matters. Andreanecia Morris of a fair-housing advocacy coalition said the alleged systemic bias is unacceptable and said King's text messages exemplify systemic bias within New Orleans government, per the unsealed record.
Where the Case Stands Now
U.S. District Judge Brandon Long ruled on motions to dismiss on July 13, 2026, dismissing all claims against King in his individual capacity with prejudice and dismissing Title VI claims against the City Council, while allowing the federal Fair Housing Act claims against the city itself to proceed. Morgan Williams of the National Fair Housing Alliance said the effect of residents' statements on the judge's eventual ruling is unclear, but said such statements can be relevant when considering what motivated an elected official's action.
Councilmember Eugene Green, who also voted to block the project, said he is extremely confident King harbors no racial animus and said his own council decisions would never be influenced by race. The council has maintained that its decision reflected residents' concerns about impacts on neighborhood infrastructure, with English Turn residents saying local roads could not handle an influx of new residents. The lawsuit currently has no trial date, and NOLA.com reports the case will go before a jury if Judge Long does not issue a ruling first.
The dispute echoes tensions Hoodline has tracked elsewhere in Algiers' affordable housing fights, where the 702-unit Parc Fontaine complex was sold to a nonprofit developer this month after landing on the city's blight list. King's comments on federal civil rights enforcement have drawn scrutiny before; in December, he criticized federal immigration tactics as akin to racial profiling, saying “this isn't who we should be” at a City Council event unveiling an immigrant rights portal.
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