Capacity Study for Jekyll Island:
How Much Development Is Too Much Development?
Update: November 19, 2018
The IPJI submitted a response to the August 28, 2018 draft of the Jekyll Island Capacity/Infrastructure Assessment presented to the JIA Board by Sand County Studios. Because of the importance of the affordability issue to IPJI members, a tiny sample of comments IPJI has received from its online affordability petition have been included. Some of the comments are a result of the affordability issue being raised in the context of the Capacity/Infrastructure Assessment as it relates to the visitor experience.
In December, the JIA issued a Request for Proposals (RFP 336) from firms interested in conducting a Jekyll Island carrying capacity and infrastructure assessment, which, according to the RFP, would "allow the
JIA Board to make informed decisions about land use, density, development projects,and amenity enhancements."
Three firms submitted proposals responsive to RFP 336. At its February
19, 2018 board meeting, Sand County Studios (SCS) and four of its
partners, were chosen to conduct the Capacity Study for the JIA.
The estimated time for completion is six to eight months. To read SCS's proposal, click here.
The key question that must be addressed in this study is, "how much and what kind of development or redevelopment can the island sustain without diminishing the quality of the Jekyll experience? Obviously, there is no way to answer that question without a robust public input session and a comprehensive survey of the island's visitors and residents. Details are not yet available regarding how SCS will gather information from the public. Once this information is available, IPJI will advise its members on how they can participate in this important process.
Hopefully, SCS's capacity study, which will be completed this fall, will produce results more in tune with Jekyll's character than was the case with the previous attempt to deal with this issue, namely the 2008 report produced the Bleakly Advisory Group, which called for an additional 1,000 hotel rooms beyond the island's all-time high and nearly twice the number of residences on the island.
Comments on behalf of the Intiatitive to Protect Jekyll Island where submitted to SCS in response to the April 17, 2018 public meeting they held to outline their scope of work and take public comments.
