This story has been updated.

DECATUR, Ga. — Decatur Day organizers and Beacon Hill elders are asking City Schools of Decatur to hold a referendum on a bond issuance that would fund an early learning center at 346 W. Trinity Place.

About two dozen residents attended the Decatur City Commission meeting on April 6 and overwhelmingly supported a proposal to create a historic Beacon Hill district.

The district will include 346 W. Trinity Place and surrounding properties, such as the Decatur Housing Authority properties, Lily Hill Baptist Church, Ebster Recreation Center and Park, the Beacon Municipal Complex and DeKalb County offices.

City Schools of Decatur owns the greenspace at 346 W. Trinity Place and is planning to construct an early childhood learning center there. The school board is in the process of obtaining a $52 million bond from the city’s Public Facilities Authority to fund the $22 million ECLC and improvements at Decatur High School. However, there is legislation awaiting the governor’s signature that would put the bond on the ballot this fall.

Wanda Sims Watters, who grew up in Beacon Hill, urged City Schools of Decatur to accept the referendum and move forward with it.

“Let the people decide and at least have a fair input,” Watters said. “We need to rebuild as much trust for this strong community as we possibly can, and don’t break it down again.”

The project has been mired in controversy about its cost and the school district’s actions toward people who question it. Initially, CSD opposed the historic district application for the ECLC site.

City commissioners are frustrated with the school board and took the unusual step of blasting their colleagues during a public meeting last month.

Historic preservation

The Decatur Historic Preservation Commission will make a recommendation to the city commission during a special-called meeting on April 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Decatur Public Works, 2635 Talley St. The city commission will make the final decision on the historic district.

The city commission will vote on the application on April 20.

The proposed district is much of what was Beacon Hill, the Black community in segregated Decatur, before the area was displaced by urban renewal efforts.

The area, previously known as the Bottom, was a tight-knit community of schools, churches and businesses. The boundaries today are North McDonough Street on the east, West Trinity Place on the north, Water Street on the west and Howard Avenue to the south, according to the Decatur Housing Authority.

Many of the homes, businesses and churches that once formed the neighborhood have been torn down. The historic designation would be an open and visible display of Decatur’s Black history.

The CSD-owned property at 346 W. Trinity Place is one of the last open greenspaces in downtown Decatur. It was home to Allen Wilson Terrace, a public housing apartment complex in Beacon Hill. The housing development was demolished years ago, and the property sits empty.

City Planner Aileen de la Torre explained that a local historic district does not regulate use and it is about buildings and landscapes.

“A local historic district does not make you do something that you weren’t already going to do,” de la Torre said. “But if you, say, are going to do repair work or do any sort of addition or windows or whatever, that’s when it comes into play. It basically is part of the permit process.”

She added that major changes require review and approval from the Historic Preservation Commission.

During the public hearing April 6, Doris Sims said the historic district would educate the community about the past. Sims and Watters grew up in Beacon Hill.

“All I ask on behalf of the coalition and the elders is that we appreciate [the historic preservation] process, and we would expect and hope that it is followed to the letter by the commission and by the city,” Sims said.

She added that the Beacon Hill elders agree with the draft ordinance before the Historic Preservation Commission and city commission. Sims noted that it’s “exactly what we’ve been asking for.”

The Beacon Hill elders are proud of their ancestry and heritage and they want to continue sharing their history while making it public and accessible.

“This is from the coalition, from us and everybody else, a firm and explicit example of what city of Decatur has always prided itself on – that’s diversity and inclusion in all processes of government, cultural events and everything else,” Sims said.

Some concerns have been raised about the amount of greenspace that will be preserved if the early childhood learning center construction moves forward. Sims urged the city to add a requirement in the historic preservation ordinance that 80 percent of the site at 346 W. Trinity Place should be preserved as greenspace.

Decatur resident and native Lynn Farmer supported the historic district and is concerned about the lack of transparency regarding the ECLC.

“What is disappointing to me in this process has been the school district’s lack of transparency in communicating with the public, their legal wrangling, confusing the issue, often obscuring their intent,” Farmer said.

She additionally urged the city commission to honor and support the Beacon Hill elders’ request for a historic district and an archeological study, and to support the calls for a referendum on CSD’s bond issuance to fund the early childhood learning center and improvements at Decatur High School.

Farmer grew up in Decatur and is a graduate of Decatur High. She lived through the urban renewal efforts in the 1960s as a teenager. She recalled that literature passed out described the Beacon Hill community as blighted, and local banks redlined and denied loan applications from Black residents. The area was eventually demolished and turned into municipal buildings and parking lots.

“We ask our commission to put their words into action,” Farmer said. “Don’t be afraid. Risk doing the right thing. Expose the gap between legalese and profit on one side and sacred conservation and redemption on the other. It is a moral, ethical and spiritual issue.”