Officials at the Decatur City Historic Preservation Commission expressed concern Dec. 9 about a proposed federally permitted 200-foot cell phone tower sited near the depot and its potential impact on a nearby potential historic district.

Speaker 2 described the proposal as federally permitted and therefore subject to environmental review, and said the commission engaged consultants to question whether the project "potentially damage[s] the historic district in some way." Speaker 2 reported their response when the proposal arrived in the commission's inbox: "my response was, it does."

Speaker 2 said the commission pushed back on the tower proposal for roughly two years and was able to identify other siting options; "putting a 200 foot tower in the process where you can depot is probably not not an appropriate thing to be doing," Speaker 2 said, and recounted working with environmental-review consultants to argue the tower should be reduced because of the presence or potential of a historic district.

The speaker added that listing a site on the National Register of Historic Places provides additional leverage in the environmental-review process and makes it more likely to secure changes to a telecommunications project's design or height where historic resources might be affected.

No federal permit documents, environmental reviews, or telecommunications company representatives were present in the recorded segments. The transcript captures the commission's concerns and advocacy but does not record a pending application number, final siting decision, or enforcement action in the provided text.