Judge allows development on Sea Island “spit”

Sea Island, the upscale Georgia resort favored by well-helled Atlantans, can build a groin and replenish dunes to keep rising seas from harming a planned multi-million dollar housing development on a “spit” of land below the famed Cloister Hotel.

Administrative law judge Kristin Miller upheld last week an earlier state ruling allowing construction of a 350-foot-long rock groin and a sand dune built with as much as 120,000 cubic yards of sand. The protections are intended to keep the Atlantic Ocean from destroying already threatened beachfront property where home lots are priced as high as $5.5 million.

The Sea Island Co. plans to build eight homes along the eight-acre slice of land.