You're conflating two islands here -- Sea Island is a separate island that has been privately owned since at least the 1920s. You have to drive across St Simons to get to Sea Island. For sure, Sea Island is a high end, gated resort community of a few hundred people.
St Simons is home to about 12k people. It has been an expensive place to live since at least the 80s. I, too, share your concerns about the current development going on -- I'm not sure the developers are in fact being careful about killing the golden goose. Developers are cutting down our historic oak trees and indiscriminately putting up cheaply built condos as fast as the corrupt planning commission will let them.
This is the perfect opportunity to plug the St Simons Land Trust: https://www.sslt.org/
Unlike national conservation organizations (which are great and have their place), local land trusts can really take on the priorities of the local area.
For example, the land trust I'm involved with here in the Inland Northwest does a lot of work to make sure that land used for agriculture and forestry is preserved for those uses, doesn't turn into housing developments and can even be passed down from generation-to-generation of family farmers without a prohibitive tax burden.
In Montana where there's been tons issues over access to public lands blocked by private landowners, they're playing a key role in preserving that access.
The Land Trust Alliance is a great place to find your local land trust: https://www.findalandtrust.org/
I expect you'll be surprised at the amount of "good for your community" work they're doing.
What's worse is when things don't pan out, and you are left with hundreds of half finished condos.
You're right developers are destroying trees. I guess what I was alluding to was the historical restrictions on building sizes and things like that.
Perhaps what's happening in the bay is the result of responsible, long sighted policies designed to mitigate or forestall a population collapse during a proverbial gold rush in what could become a future Rust Belt.
I'm curious to hear your views. Where should we meet to talk about it? Galveston, Atlantic City, Detroit, Buffalo, New Orleans...?
You're forgetting the great quake of 1906 which destroyed nearly 80% of San Francisco, and the continuing threat of the San Andreas fault.
Society moves forwards, people who want to "preserve" really don't want us to move forward. Whether they are killing mass transit plans because they want to "preserve" their small city culture or not allowing the building of high-density housing to meet the demands to our ever growing population.
Preserve is even more sinister as it uses justify racism and oppression or south likes to refer to as "preserving their southern culture" as they fly confederate flags and put up statues of Confederate leaders.
My biggest hope is that Cumberland Island, GA can avoid this fate. It has no bridge to it, and most of it is preserved as wilderness area, but the county seems to be trying its hardest to develop what private land remains on the island. It's a real shame, because it's one of the last wild, preserved islands anyone can get to by booking a ferry with the park service.
Hilton Head native here, I don't think the HHI history is quite the same. Prior to Fraser kicking off the island as we know it in the '50s, it was basically just a handful of Freedmen farmers, Gullah natives and a rather large hunting reserve for the rich. Also, while some of the gated communities don't allow the riff-raff in, unless you decide to bike or make a restaurant reservation, some still do, most notably Sea Pines.
Also, the Town of is rather cognizant of their place as a very natural, family-friendly island and goes to great pains to preserve land[0] and limit what and how folks build[1][2] to preserve the nature of the island.
I think Kiawah or Seabrook up the coast make for a more apt comparison.
> Hunting Island, SC as well - Fripp Island is a gated community.
Wait, Hunting Island and Fripp Island are discrete, separate islands with Hunting Island being a State Park. What's the problem with Hunting Island?
[0] - https://www.hiltonheadislandsc.gov/council/landacquisition.c...
[1] - https://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/david...
[2] - https://www.islandpacket.com/news/business/article33627555.h...
I'm not sure how much of the beach is considered public in east coast states, I know CA has laws against full privatization. But by gating the only road access, you've effectively privatized the beach unless you kayak there or something.
They sell tourist passes for $6 (Used to be $5... damn inflation).
> I'm not sure how much of the beach is considered public in east coast states
In the state of SC, there is no such thing as a private beach. Of course if the island is fully gated, it would require boat access.
In the case of Fripp, there is no public parking insofar as I'm aware but one could park at the edge of Hunting Island, walk across the bridge, then access the beach as the gates are inset.
Of course I'm also sure the security folks would try and make you feel unwelcome. One of those "can't beat the ride, can beat the rap" situations.
Ironically, it was a gated community before that was cool, but had to be evacuated during World War II because of German U-Boat threat.
So now anyone can visit. As long as the ferry is running.
This is happening all over the South Carolina coast as well.
St Simon's has changed over the years. It's finally succumbing to development though they are being careful about it so as not to kill the golden goose (a very private feeling island). Most of the people that lived there prior to its rise in popularity have been driven out by high prices or cashed out if they were lucky enough to own land. The Eastern part of the island has become much more accessible to lower income populations. (edit: I've got this next sentence wrong as corrected in a comment below)Rich homeowners, as a result, erected a guarded gate in front of Sea Island (basically part of SSI) to keep everyone out.
I still love SSI. My only hope is that it doesn't continue on the path it's currently on. Privacy and exclusion are separate ideas. SSI can still be private, but it doesn't necessarily have to exclusive. My hope is that can change. However, my head tells me that everything I like about SSI is scarce and prices will only continue to climb, driving away those not fortunate enough to afford it.