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Page 4 · column 5 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
To the editor:
Let me tell you about the area I left to relocate to Rappahannock County in March, 1988:
Femandina Beach is located on Amelia Island in Nassan County on Florida’s Northeast Coast. Poor access and cold winters kept Amelia Island “undiscovered” until the early 1970’s, except for a modest number of tourists from Georgia during the summer months and a “Shrimp Festival” one weekend each year, which featured seafood, arts and crafts.
One could drive the length of this barrier Island on A1A, Florida’s coastal highway, and have an almost uninterrupted view of sanddunes, beach and ocean. Cars and trucks were permitted on the entire beach span, facilitating surf and shark fishing, horseshoes, volleyball, surfing, picnics and shark tooth hunting.
Local politicians and the Chamber of Commerce decided that development was needed to “broaden the tax base,” and the Amelia Island Plantation was allowed to build at the uninhabited south end of the Island. This massive development included golf courses, tennis facilities, inns, housing sites and condominiums for the very wealthy. The original project was stalled by recession but boomed and expanded as the economy improved.
Any resemblence between Amelia Island then and now is purely coincidental. The island is now jam packed with fast food outlets, convenience stores, filling stations and shopping centers. The quaint old intracoastal marina has been replaced with a new one with rates so high that long term local users were forced to dock their boats elsewhere.
The beach is closed to vehicles except for one short section for which an annual permit must be purchased, and property owners at the Plantation and other subsequent developments are trying annually to close that section to traffic too, while limiting pedestrain access to designated locations, thereby establishing their own de facto private beaches.
The ocean can hardly be seen from A1A now, as houses and high rise condominiums block the view on nearly every available space. Increased traffic has tripled the time it used to take to drive through town.
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