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Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Public must get a voice on Jekyll’s future
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For 92 cents a day, a sum that has not changed in 57 years and won’t change for 42 more, the People of Georgia rent some of the most desirable real estate within its borders to 623 homeowners on Jekyll Island.
The rate, for parcels that average about a third to a half-acre, was fixed for 99 years — a period now set to expire in 2049. A bill now before the Georgia General Assembly would extend the general oversight and management of Jekyll to the 9-member Jekyll Island Authority for another 50 years beyond that. The authority could then decide whether to extend individual leases for residential or commercial property for up to another 50 years, to 2099.
When the current 99-year leases on individual parcels expire, the authority could decide on its own whether to extend them and at what rates.
The Georgia House of Representatives last week agreed, 130-35, to extend the authority’s control over the island, which correctly markets itself as “Georgia’s Jewel,” for 50 more years. With it comes a license to develop the island and impose lease rates as the authority sees fit. State law, passed in 1971, limits development to “not more than thirty-five percent (35%) of the land area of Jekyll Island which lies above water at mean high tide.” Most of that has been utilized with existing residential, hotel, golf and commercial development.
Jekyll now has 10 hotel leases, said Bill Donohue, executive director of the authority. Of those, eight exist as hotels, six on the beach, one across the street and one in the historic district. The hotels generate about $2 million per year in revenue to the authority. Lease payments are subject to negotiation when properties change hands. The 623 residential properties generate $209,315 per year — a sum that does not escalate when properties are sold and is not adjusted to inflation.
The General Assembly in 1950 decreed that Jekyll should be affordable for “people of average income.” That’s certainly no longer the case with residential properties, most of which were built prior to 1970. A 35-year-old, three-bedroom, two-bath house on Jekyll now sells for $450,000, said Donohue, while the authority collects an average of $28 per month. If residential leases are extended when they expire in 42 years, “the idea would be to get them to pay market-based rates immediately,” Donohue said Monday.
The plain fact of the matter is, however, that questions about how to develop — or not develop — a Georgia treasure over the next 92 years should never be left to an unelected authority, whose members serve four-year terms. Nor should it be decided by a single governor or a General Assembly making decisions on the fly.
There’s no inherent reason to distrust the authority’s board or its stewardship. But if it’s granted a 50-year extension now, there’s nothing stopping five scalawags from calling a meeting on a Sunday afternoon 20 years from now and extending sweetheart leases over a valuable public asset for another half-century. Once it’s done, the public has no recourse. They can’t throw the bums out because the bums aren’t elected.
The fact is that two things should happen. Three really. The first is that the state Senate should defeat this bill to extend the Jekyll Island Authority’s management and oversight another 50 years past 2049. The reason is not because of bad management or because its board hasn’t shown responsible stewardship. It’s simply because decisions made now have consequences for the next five generations, at least.
The second thing that should happen is that a state commission be appointed to take recommendations from the Jekyll Island Authority and pull together a 92-year plan that spells out what percentage of the island is to be developed, what the phrase “affordable for people of average income” means, what density is to be allowed and where, and that makes clear to current residential leaseholders that a public asset will revert to public use in 2049. The property of 9 million Georgians is too valuable to assign to 623 individuals.
The third thing that should happen is that a state constitutional amendment should be drafted to reflect the will of the people of Georgia on how they want the island developed for the next five generations or more. It is far too consequential to be left to a single governor’s appointees or to a 40-day session of the General Assembly where legislators are shoveling words into law.
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