Plans that call for up to 185 new hotel rooms as well as a new parking lot on Jekyll Island have residents and supporters worried about the future of the state-owned barrier island.
The Jekyll Island Authority, which oversees the conservation and development of the island, plans to develop a boutique hotel of up to 125 rooms on its golf course. The planned expansion of the existing Beachview Club Hotel could see its accommodations more than double from 38 rooms to a possible 98 rooms. And a wooded lot across from the Beachview Club is targeted as the site of additional parking for the enlarged hotel.
Areas targeted for development
The Jekyll Island Authority plans to add a new golf boutique hotel near a valued birding site, the amphitheater pond. It’s also planning to expand the Beachview Club Hotel and allow a new parking lot across the street from it.
In response to these developments, One Hundred Miles, together with Coastal Georgia Audubon Society and some concerned Jekyll residents, launched a petition on May 12 that garnered over 2,000 signatures in a week. Addressed to Gov. Brian Kemp, State Rep. Steven Sainz (R-St. Marys), State Sen. Michael Hodges (R-Brunswick), and the Jekyll Island-State Park Authority Oversight Committee, the petition urges these officials to “rein in overdevelopment before Jekyll Island is spoiled for Georgians forever.”
Vested interests
Jekyll resident Jon Stevenson signed the petition. Originally from Ohio, Stevenson has visited Jekyll since 1974, owned a home here since 1997 and been a full-time resident since 2018. His is one of about 500 households on Jekyll, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Homeowners lease their land from the state.
Four generations of Stevenson’s family gather on Jekyll, which they treasure for bringing them close to nature on bike trails and uncrowded beaches. Nobody wants Jekyll to become another Hilton Head or St. Simons, he said.
“Visitors have a vested interest in keeping it as it is,” he said.
Besides, he figures increasing the number of hotel rooms would be bad business. The average occupancy rate of 62.5% for the years 2023 to 2025 is barely above the break-even level of 60%, he noted. He doesn’t understand how more rooms could be profitable.
“It makes no sense to me,” he said.
Jekyll officials say occupancy rates vary.
“Over the past decade, Jekyll Island has experienced significant growth in visitation and continues to lead the coastal Georgia region in hotel occupancy,” JIA Marketing Communications Manager Lauren Buie wrote in an email to The Current GA. “However, capacity remains an important consideration in evaluating any proposed development, and those factors are carefully reviewed as part of the planning process.”
Jekyll has about 1,400 rooms total, so the suggested additions could increase capacity by more than 13 percent.
Master plan
Kat Montgomery, South Coast Advocate for One Hundred Miles, said Jekyll’s guiding documents, including the 2021 Master Plan, the capacity study and 2025 FY reports do not indicate new hotels are necessary.
“So that’s why I’m just wondering, what is informing these choices, then?” she said. “Because it doesn’t seem to be the guidelines. It doesn’t seem to be the carrying capacity study that was done. So what is it? And I’d love to know the answer.”
The petition accuses the JIA of “pushing through two major hotel projects with no public engagement or transparency. The JIA’s Buie responded to that claim with a timeline of the board’s actions.
The Golf Improvement Plan approved by the Jekyll Island Authority Board in 2022 included the proposed golf lodge as part of the long-term vision for golf on Jekyll Island, she wrote.
“Beachview Club Hotel has been working through a proposed expansion plan since 2021. Multiple architectural concepts and revisions have been reviewed through the Design Review Committee, presented publicly, and voted on at JIA Board meetings.
Both projects have followed Jekyll Island’s established procedures and review processes for development considerations, including public awareness, board discussions, and applicable design and planning reviews.”
Discussion of both projects came to the forefront recently.
Deputy Executive Director Noel Jensen presented the changes to the Beachview Club at the March meeting of the JIA board, but did not specify the number of rooms that would be added. Instead, he noted that “the owner recently submitted revised plans to JIA which modifies the addition from three stories to four. JIA has been told that the additional capacity is necessary to make the project financially viable and to allow the property to be flagged as a Hilton Tapestry property.”
The board approved the design without discussion. The board packet notes that a lease for the area targeted for additional parking necessitated by the larger hotel will be presented for JIA Board approval by mid-June.
Created by an act of the state legislature, the Jekyll Island Authority board consists of members appointed by the governor to serve four-year terms. The authority is overseen by a six-member legislative oversight committee called the Jekyll Island-State Park Authority Oversight Committee. Its current members are: State Sen. Blake Tillery (R-Vidalia); State Sen. Mike Hodges (R-Brunswick); State Sen. Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro); State Rep. Steven Sainz (R-St. Marys); State Rep. Matt Hatchett (R-Dublin), and State Rep. Buddy DeLoach (R- Townsend).
At the April 21 JIA board meeting, Executive Director Mark Williams told the board there was public concern about the parking lot. “I want folks to know that staff is working on a solution that we believe will address many of those concerns, and we’ll bring that back to you at a later date, but we are working on that.”
By mid-May, JIA was still working on it.
“That information is still being finalized and will be shared publicly once details are confirmed,” Buie wrote.
Neither issue appeared on the agenda for the May 19 meeting.
Bad for birds?
Ben Carswell lives on Jekyll and is president of the Coastal Georgia Audubon, a 100-member chapter of the National Audubon Society. In comments he offered to the JIA at its April meeting, Carswell noted that the new two-acre parking lot is almost as large as the existing 2.75-acre Beachview Club Hotel lease.
“So I’d encourage you to ask yourselves, if a residential lease holder on the island came to the authority and had done a home renovation, maxed out the footprint of their home, and then come to the authority and said, ‘Oh, you know, I’m not sure I have enough space in my driveway for the house parties I want to have. Can you lease me some land across the street for a parking lot?’ I don’t think that that applicant would even make it before this board.”
The birders are also worried that the boutique golf hotel seems to be getting bigger. Approved as a 70-room hotel, the JIA later indicated it would be open to proposals for a 90-125 room hotel. It’s located next to a key birding spot, the Jekyll Island amphitheater pond, which serves as a wading bird rookery.
Islands in the pond allow wood storks to nest there, with their young guarded from marauding raccoons by alligators swimming below. The pond was enlarged, and plans call for observation decks.
“So all that’s great, but the character of that area would really be different if you’re birdwatching, or if you’re a bird nesting, and there’s a 125-room hotel sticking up over the tree line, versus, a more modest, 50-room lodge as was previously envisioned,” Carswell said.
Carswell addressed the board again at its May 19 meeting and noted the petition, which by then had over 2,000 signatures.
“As stated in the petition, every study the JIA has commissioned, every formal plan it has approved, in the past decade, backs the simple premise that the JIA should be moderating, not accommodating, these kind of development pressures,” he told the board. “The Authority’s mission explicitly charges you with finding balance.”
The board did not respond publicly to Carswell’s statement. One Hundred Miles’ Montgomery presented the petition to the board at the same meeting, noting that more than 600 of the signatures were from Glynn County, including more than 200 from Jekyll residents. The island has 866 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
So far there’s been limited interest from private developers for the golf boutique hotel. The JIA received no submissions to its request for proposals by the March 31 deadline.
“The JIA had several interested parties that requested additional time due to external obligations unrelated to the JIA,” Buie wrote in an email to The Current. The JIA also received a formal proposal post deadline. The Authority and its Board of Directors are considering reissuing the RFP at a later date, based on the communicated timing constraints of those interested.”
