12/17 - Major projects to hurt Jekyll

ajc.com > Opinion
READERS WRITE: By Brenda Deily Constan
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/17/07

Major projects to hurt Jekyll

Jekyll Island remains one of Georgia's greatest treasures as a habitat for nesting sea turtles and migrating birds, as well as for its unique salt marshes, sand dunes and unrestricted beaches. As a resort, it is one of the few remaining coastal havens accessible to those of us who are not affluent. To allow Linger-Longer and Trammell Crowe to construct big-ticket, high-rise condominiums and high-end hotel rooms will benefit no one other than the developers and a handful of their wealthy clients, who seem to feel entitled to exclusive rights to Georgia's natural beauty.

Such development will discourage visitation by many ordinary Georgians for whom the island was intended when it became a state park. Most important, the suggested six-story buildings with their lights that will be visible from the beach, thereby affecting nesting sea turtles; the years of noise and debris from construction; and the proposed road reconstruction through a maritime forest will put excessive pressure on the island's wildlife and will be an ecological catastrophe from which the island will likely never recover.

BRENDA DEILY CONSTAN, Decatur