The Holy Cross Neighborhood Association (HCNA) is suing two state agencies and the state fire marshal over the decision to allow Sunrise Foods to install a fire sprinkler system that does not meet fire code in the company’s planned grain storage warehouse at the Alabo Wharf.
The neighborhood association filed the lawsuit on Thursday in the 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge. Jeffrey Wittenbrink Jr., a Holy Cross association member who lives near the Sunrise project, is also named as a petitioner. The Office of the State Fire Marshall (OSFM) and Chief Fire Marshall Chad Sonnier are named as defendants, as is the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, which oversees several regulatory agencies including the OSFM.
The suit was filed by attorneys from the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, which is representing the neighborhood and Wittenbrink in the case…