Regarding the opinion letter by David Egan on February 11, there are many incorrect statements need to be corrected:

1. The Jekyll Island State Park Authority has been working with the concept of a “town center” (that is land-planner lingo, not ours) since 2005, not in recent months.
2. The Authority asked for proposals through a public Request For Proposals. Linger Longer Communities did not introduce the plan unsolicited, it was a result of the RFP that was brought about in the course of a very deliberate and paced revitalization initiative that began with the Jekyll Island Master Plan Update in 2004.
3. Public opinion given to the Authority is strongly in support of the Beach Village concept plan, there appears to be only a small group of detractors.
4. There is nothing to substantiate the claim that the Authority’s traffic figures are incorrect or that the methodology changed. There is a variety of data that reflects a decline in visitation over the past 16 years that is on the order of 50%. None of the data is a specific traffic count, so there have been many attempts at estimating actual visitation. The visitation number posted on the compiled statistics takes the vehicle count, and multiplies by the “average party size” recorded in the prevailing guest survey of that particular year. This is not an actual number, and the JIA has only used this to look at a long-term trend.
5. A new Convention Center and Convention Center Hotel are key components of the “town center”, which is more accurately described as a beach village. These new facilities are the top priority in order to achieve revitalization as they will attract conventions that once met on Jekyll Island, as well as attract additional meetings and conventions. Meetings & conventions are important to revitalization because they provide economic stability through mid-week business outside of the traditional travel or holiday periods.
6. Outside of the Beach Village concept plan, there are currently three hotel replacement projects at various stages of planning. If each is completed as currently planned, the addition to hotel inventory over what is being replaced will only be 329 units. If you add the number of units in the Beach Village concept plan (which is being revised and may not have the same number), then the lodging inventory including condominium rental units would double.
7. The Authority has not placed a label on its critics, but is being clear that Sen. Chapman’s legislation would effectively stop the revitalization of Jekyll Island, which is contrary to the direction given to the Jekyll Island Authority by the Governor and General Assembly over the past five years and specifically conflicts with HB214 signed into law last year.
8. The Beach Village concept plan does just what Mr. Egan suggests, through the creation of a new Environmental Discovery Center the nature-based tourism opportunities on the beautiful Georgia coast will be highlighted and promoted to a much higher degree.

Misinformation has been generating negative bias towards the Jekyll Island State Park Authority, Linger Longer Communities and our plans for the revitalization of Jekyll Island. We find that once clarity is given to the mission, the strategy and the ideas, most people become supportive.

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