Fighting for the soul of Jekyll Island

In 1947, the state of Georgia purchased Jekyll Island and designated it a “state park for the plain people of Georgia.” Accommodations on the island were supposed to be within the price range of average folk, and state law mandated that 65 percent of the island must remain undeveloped.

The times, they are a-changin’. Gov. Sonny Perdue made an unsuccessful push during the past legislative session to open up the south end of Jekyll to developers. And the Jekyll Island Authority voted last month to give a $10 million rent break to Trammel Crow Co., for a proposed $90 million project where the Buccaneer Beach Resort now sits.

Other developers are also eyeing Jekyll Island, and the Jekyll Island Authority is scheduled next month to select a “development partner” who will be responsible for coordinating an estimated $3 billion in new construction coming to the island.

The rash of activity on Jekyll has prompted the formation of the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island, a new group that will lobby to preserve Jekyll Island as we know it today.

“We’re dealing with a ‘David and Goliath’ scenario here, with the ‘little people’ of Georgia trying to protect their own state park from high-end redevelopment by the ‘giants’ of the real estate work and their powerful allies within the Capitol,” says David Egan, co-director of the group. “We’ve gathered over 5,000 supporters for our cause; they’re mad as hell over what the Jekyll Island Authority ... is trying to do at the expense of the mainstream Georgians for whom Jekyll has served as an affordable site for over a half century.”

An oceanfront room at the Buccaneer runs as low as $89 a night, according to the motel’s website. The Trammell Crow proposal — which includes 400 hotel rooms and 120 condos — estimates room prices would be $250 a night at peak season.

“The people of Georgia are getting a raw deal,” says Egan. “The redevelopment of their own state park will result in a park less friendly to people of ordinary means, and far friendlier to deep-pocketed and politically connected developers, and to the affluent clientele the ‘new Jekyll Island’ will cater to.”

The good news is that efforts to protect the south end of the island did succeed. Perdue signed into law a bill that prohibits development there, removes the power of the Jekyll Island Authority to sell land and renews legislative oversight over the authority.

But there’s bad news, too, according to Egan. “My guess is that, with the south end out of the picture, development will simply be more intensive on other parts of the island,” he says.