Quick, answer this question: What do you think is more important to Georgia State Senator Russ Tolleson? Protecting the Coastal Zone Management Act which "works with the Federal Coastal Management Act to generate funds for conservation, rehabilitation and education efforts along Georgia's coastline?"
Or protecting a huge 63-acre private development on the main public beach of Jekyll Island State Park?
If you said "private devlopment"- and I'm guessing you did- you are correct!
What do you win? Depends on who you are. If you're Russ Tolleson, you win the gratitude of Linger Longer Communities, big Republicans contributors. If you're Ben Porter, Chairman of the Jekyll Island Authority, you win the gratitude of Governor Perdue, a man mentioned as a possible VPOTUS. If you're Gov. Perdue, you win the gratitude of Mercer Reynolds, owner of Linger Longer and currently John McCain's national finance co-chairman. If you're Mercer Reynolds, you win one of the most coveted pieces of public coastal land left in the state.
And if you're a Georgia resident and owner of the Jekyll Island State Park? You win a development thousands of you said you don't want.
The Jekyll Island Authority and Linger Longer, along with their good friends in the legislature such as Sen. Tolleson, have portrayed Jekyll Island State Park as destitute, declining and unattractive in order to sell this one development proposal as the savior of the entire island. In contrast, those who see the bigger picture of current redevelopment underway coupled with projected redevelopment of other existing properties say that the excess and placement of the Linger Longer proposal is irresponsible.
In defending the decision to deny a full vote on the Coastal Zone Management Act with an amendment attached to protect a "nearly half mile" of Jekyll's public beach, Sen. Roger Lane said this:
"The Coastal Zone Management Act is very important legislation, and it's disheartening that this amendment got in the way of it," Lane said. "But the revitalization of Jekyll Island is too serious to jeopardize."
Let's be clear. The "revitalization" they are referring to is ONE development proposal. Properties are already being redeveloped in the park, but they chose to deny the Coastal Zone Management Act renewal over whether or not Linger Longer Communities can build condos and hotels on a stretch of beach that currently has no condos and hotels. It's not about overall revitalization, it's about this one private development and its location.
This comes even after they knew the development proposal had run afoul of the Georgia Shore Protection Act.
The state Department of Natural Resources' survey showed nearly half of Jekyll's proposed beachfront village will fall within Georgia Shore Protection Act jurisdiction. The Jekyll Island Authority, the island's governing body, had anticipated portions of the development would be affected and had requested the survey in January.
"We take our charge to protect the unique and unspoiled beaches of Jekyll Island very seriously," authority board Chairman Ben Porter said in a statement released Tuesday.
Good lord, you "take your charge to protect the unique and unspoiled beaches of Jekyll Island seriously" by accepting a proposal where almost half of the development will be in protected areas?
I get the feeling that they want this one development started before the Coastal Georgia Land Conservation Initiative gets really cranked up.
Georgia has one-third of the eastern seaboard’s coastal marshlands and natural resources rated internationally significant, according to the Georgia Conservancy.
“Georgia is blessed with unique environmental riches along the coast,” said Jim Stokes, president of the Georgia Conservancy. “Without careful planning, rapid growth and tourism activities are on a collision course with coastal drinking water supplies, habitats and public lands.
And to be honest, careful planning isn't a hallmark of the current Jekyll Island Authority. They don't even know what makes the island unique:
In the Oleander Course at Jekyll Island Golf Club, the state hasn't exactly gone out of its way to spend money on conditioning. But the Oleander has views unmarred by development, though as of this writing, the politicians and the Jekyll Island State Park Authority were squabbling about funds for developing and refurbishing the barrier island.
"Views unmarred by development." Even a golf site knows what the JIA can't or won't acknowledge; that Jekyll is unique precisely because it doesn't yet have this one development they are fighting so hard for.
There are quite a few people who win with this one development. But the "ordinary people of Georgia," for whom the park was meant, doesn't appear to be among them.