Let’s Keep Jekyll Island Affordable!             A Petition from Jekyll’s Visitors

             Sponsored by the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island

                                                                    Introduction

Jekyll Island State Park will experience major redevelopment over the next few years. By all indications, the board of directors of the Jekyll Island Authority (the governor-appointed agency in charge of the island) seems intent on shifting the balance of Jekyll’s accommodations in an upscale direction. Using the slogan “Jekyll will offer lodging options for all Georgians,” the JIA board has, in effect, discounted the statute in the Georgia Code that calls for Jekyll’s facilities to be affordable for people of average income. 

“Lodging options for all Georgians” has, for example, translated into development projects that will bring high-priced condominiums to Jekyll’s oceanfront, including 127 units at the Canopy Bluff Resort, which will average roughly $750,000 per unit, and 30 units at the Cottages and Inn at Georgia Coast, which will average $990,000 per unit. The 300-room upscale hotel at the Canopy Bluff Resort will have an average daily room rate of  $175 to begin with and then escalate into the $200+ range within just a couple of years.

While a policy which aims to offer “lodging options for all Georgians” is not unreasonable, the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island State Park (IPJI) believes that, in view of the affordability mandate featured in Jekyll Island State Park’s founding legislation, the majority of Jekyll’s accommodations should remain affordable for the majority of its visitors.

IPJI is therefore collecting signatures for a petition to be presented to Governor Perdue and the Jekyll Island Authority Legislative Oversight Committee, and to be made available to the media, calling for the JIA board to respect the intent of the original 1950 Jekyll Island Authority Act, which calls for “the operation of the public facilities of the park at rates so moderate that all of the ordinary citizens of the State may enjoy them.”

Our petition effort will not succeed unless Jekyll’s many friends do all they can to circulate the document.   We strongly encourage everyone - Georgians and non-Georgians alike - to support this effort by sharing the petition with family and friends, neighbors and colleagues, and anyone else who might be interested in our cause.

Printable copies of the petition, which can be signed and sent to the IPJI by postal mail, are available in our "Resource  Center" which is located among the list of nine subject headings found in the center section of our website's home page

Thank you for lending your support to the campaign to preserve and protect the people’s park,

David and Mindy Egan

Co-Directors, Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island - “The Voice of Jekyll’s Visitors” degan@igc.org

By signing your name(s) on the lines below, you can register your support for keeping Jekyll Island State Park affordable for average income folks, as the law intended. If you have not given us your e-mail address previously, please do so if you wish to receive updates regarding the Jekyll redevelopment issue. ***E-mail address will be kept strictly confidential.***

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