House size fuels critiques in Cumberland Island land swaps

Proposed land swaps on Cumberland Island National Seashore have drawn criticism for a range of reasons, but the size of the homes they would allow tops many lists. 

That size, a “footprint” of up to 15,000 square feet per residence, has conservation champions fearing the construction of up to eight mansions on Georgia’s largest and southernmost barrier island. The National Park Service has downplayed the size, indicating it’s not for the house alone but is a maximum for any construction on the buildable 2-acre lots.   

Cumberland was designated a national seashore in 1972. But parts of the island remained in private hands, with owners including descendants of the Gilded Age Carnegie family that shaped the modern history of Cumberland. Some parcels on the island are held in life estates that revert to federal ownership at a designated time, but no current life estates are considered in the two land exchanges now moving forward. 

Cumberland Superintendent Melissa Trenchik has explained that acquiring the private parcels in these swaps would help the Park Service maintain a contiguous corridor through the park, preserve natural and cultural resources, and improve manageability. In exchange, the NPS would transfer federal land to the private landowners.

The National Park Service released an environmental assessment in September that outlines how much can be built on the resulting eight developable parcels of two acres each: “(U)p to 16 acres of the NPS parcels conveyed to private ownership could be disturbed for the construction of single-family residences, together with any ancillary structures, with a total footprint not exceeding 15,000 square feet per residence.”

At a Sept. 23 public meeting in St. Marys, Trenchik explained the thinking behind the 15,000 square foot limit, a number she said was already in the preliminary agreements before she became superintendent in 2023. 

“So the 15,000 square feet is what we’re calling it an industry standard,” she told The Current GA. “If I were to go buy two acres of land in rural Camden County and put a house, a modest house, like a 2,000 square foot house, and a patio –  even 3,500 (square feet) –  if you want to go that big, all right, and a driveway, and a porch, and a well house, and a septic system. Maybe I want a pool because I got a bad back, and I want to swim laps. The average footprint of all of those things is somewhere between 12,000 and 17,000 square feet. So if you run the average of those, you end up smack dab in the middle – 15,000 square feet of developed land.”

Conservation groups have not been placated by the explanation. 

 One Hundred Miles suggested 15,000 square feet is too much building to allow. 

“Reduce the 15,000 square foot total building footprint to 5,000,” it suggests on its website.

Defenders of Wildlife agrees.

“The exchanges would pave the way for roadbuilding and 15,000-square-foot mansions on lands that were meant to be protected from development,” Christian Hunt, the nonprofit’s  director of national wildlife refuges and parks program said in a prepared statement.

Wild Cumberland noted in a Sept. 30 virtual town hall that with a 35-foot height limit on structures, a residence could balloon past 15,000 square feet. 

The total size of the house could theoretically be 30,000 to 35,000 square feet,” said Dani Purvis, a volunteer and board member.  

Carol Ruckdeschel, 85, is a Wild Cumberland board member and a naturalist who resides on the island on a life estate. Her property will become part of the national seashore upon her death. She opposes the land exchanges because they don’t support the goal of maintaining Cumberland’s primitive, undeveloped character. 

“The whole plan is devastating to the island because it goes against the initial vision for the island,” she told The Current at the Sept. 23 public meeting in St. Marys. “Everything. I mean, it allows private people to stay there forever. That’s just not right.”