In 2010, 450 Glynn County citizens raised $2.5 million in under 100 days to protect 2.5 acres of historic land from commercial development. Now, the county government plans to use part of that land to build a traffic roundabout at Old Stables Corner on St. Simons Island.
In its final planning stages, the road project at Sea Island and Frederica Road would require half an acre of the historic land, plus pieces of eight other parcels. About 200 residents came to a public meeting Tuesday to protest the move, which has been on engineering plans since 2001.
“We have 10,000 people going to Brunswick every day. They’re going to school, they’re going to work, they’re going to make a living for their families, and then in the afternoon, they’re coming right back,” said Bob Duncan, District 2 Commissioner, which covers St. Simons at the open house.
Duncan compared the intersection to another busy road: Torras Causeway, where more than 20,000 vehicles travel daily. ”It’s the same thing at this intersection and so we have to address what is the safest solution for the traveling public,” he added.
Putting the roundabout at the location will require the county to acquire land purchased by community members for greenspace and owned by the St. Simons Land Trust.
“Those same people are now outraged that their tax dollars would be used to take part of the corner they worked so hard to protect,” wrote Emily Ellison, Executive Director of the St. Simons Land Trust, in an email to The Current. “Some of these people have started a petition that shows how passionate they are about protecting the property.”
The land trust says that it fears the move sets a precedent that a municipality can take private property from any landowners without data backing up the reasoning.
“We also mentioned that if the community gives in to this demand, including providing the county with a temporary easement for construction of slopes and storing of construction equipment on the Old Stables property, who is to say that they won’t come back and ask for more land at a later time when traffic increases,” she said.
Another paramount concern expressed by the land trust is that if the site is used during construction, the root systems of the remaining trees will be damaged, putting their long-term health “at risk.”
‘You can’t have your way’
The roundabout will utilize nine parcels of land, including the half an acre at Old Stables Corner. County Manager William Fallon said that he is open to a land swap.
The county has contracted a consultant, Moffat & Nichol and CHB Acquisition Services, to attain the property for the project.
“They have many years of experience with land acquisition for infrastructure projects similar to this and will follow all best practices when working with property owners to reach agreements on rights to land,” Fallon wrote in an email to The Current.
Ellison said that the land trust is open to any conversations that would help to alleviate the traffic on the island. She contends that the county has not presented any viable options for a land swap.
“Except for one that would have no environmental or historical value for the community. It was this property that the community entrusted us to protect. Not another property that the county owns,” she continued.
That leaves the county with one option: eminent domain.
Georgia code § 36-61-9 states that counties have the right to exercise a power that will allow them to take ownership of the property for public use. In these proceedings, the proprietor is to be paid “just compensation”.
“Eminent domain has been mentioned in meetings with county officials, including the process that would be followed to take the land if we did not accept an offer from them to purchase a right of way and to lease an additional temporary easement. We were told by one commissioner, ‘You can have your say, but you can’t have your way’,” Ellison said.
Shoddy communication
In June 2022, the county commission approved a $6 million budget for constructing the roundabout. However, discussions go back years.
Scott Jordan, the engineer on the project, said that the county asked his company Southeastern Engineering to do a traffic study as far back as 2001. He went on to say that they considered all variables and this was the optimal location for all stakeholders.
He admitted that this was the first project that he had worked on where a community owned a piece of land planned for roadworks.
The company also worked on the King’s Way/Frederica Road roundabout on the island.
The land trust says that it was not informed of the county’s plan to take a portion of the Old Stables Corner until July 2024. The citizen group said that it had limited communication with officials that yielded no data or specifics and were only told that the location was decided on in 2023.
“The information we’ve been given is not consistent, and often changes by whomever we are talking with at the time,” recalled Ellison.
According to Jordan, this is custom.
“We typically don’t talk to individual property owners until we’re well into design. That’s the typical process, once you get them a right-of-way acquisition, that’s when they start approaching,” he insisted at the open house.
What lies ahead?
The plan is “98 percent” completed pending utility coordination and property acquisition, according to the county.
Another variable that the county said was incorporated in selecting the location was the sight lines for motorists. Although the county owns properties on the northeast and southeast portions of the intersection, they say the speed requirements for the roundabout’s circle made the chosen spot ideal because it could accommodate proper traffic approaches.
“The further a roundabout is moved off-center of an existing intersection, the further the approaches need to be adjusted to meet operational, safety and design vehicle requirements,” Fallon explained.
The county also expressed that the center of the roundabout is offset from the existing intersection, allowing a “large portion” of the pavement to be constructed outside the lanes, which they say presents the best option for traffic flow.
“Once new pavement is constructed, the traffic can be shifted onto the new pavement while the construction is completed over the existing pavement until the new traffic pattern can be established,” he continued.
The roundabout design was approved and funded in 2022, based on a 2016 traffic study.
“The design firm looked at numerous items when deciding on placement to include existing utilities, road alignment, vehicle and pedestrian safety, impact on healthy trees,” he said. “This is one of the worst traffic intersections in Glynn County and we are doing everything we can to reduce traffic and increase safety for the thousands of residents and visitors that are impacted on a daily basis.”
Ellison says the land trust agrees traffic is a huge problem for the island and respects the work that the county is trying to do to address it. However, she says the trust feels that the present issues stem from leadership’s failure to enforce stricter zoning ordinances and not exploring other solutions that don’t involve adding more roads and not partnering with the community.
“This is not just about the problems of 2025. This is about the future of this island. This is about trying to protect the very resources and qualities that have made St. Simons so popular,” she proclaimed. “People don’t move here, retire here, stay here, or vacation here because they want more roads. They come here because of the natural beauty.”
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