DECATUR, Ga. — After a late-night meeting on Monday, Decatur City commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance that would designate the Beacon Hill District as a historic district.
Channel 2’s Cory James was at the meeting, where discussion on the Beacon Hill ordinance did not start until nearly 10 p.m. Despite the late night, dozens of people stayed at the meeting to voice their opinion.
Many neighbors wanted to preserve Beacon Hill and its greenspace along West Trinity Place and Electric Avenue.
This comes after an early learning childhood center that would cost more than $20 million is being proposed in the area, which many say is sacred and symbolic to Black families.
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Those same families say making Beacon Hill a historic district will protect the area’s history.
“It will honor the life, history and legacy of Black residents and Black-owned businesses that thrived in Beacon Hill in the late 1960s only to be forcibly removed and replaced," Doris Sims said.
Despite the historic district being approved, because City Schools of Decatur has already proposed plans for the early learning childhood center, they would still be allowed to build it, if they can raise the money.
Neighbors and commissioners are calling for an archaeological survey to reveal the history and artifacts in the community before anything is built.
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