FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Over the past two decades, the City of Fernandina Beach has experienced an annual population growth rate of approximately 1%.
By 2050, the population could rise by 19%. However, data shows the projected increase is well below the county’s projected growth, which could nearly double in the same period.
Nick Deonas, 78, grew up in Fernandina Beach, a city he used to call a “sleepy little town.”
“All the streets were brick. And if you look, see how nice and wide the street is?” Deonas said. “We actually would skip school and go to 45th and Main in Jacksonville to get McDonald’s french fries.
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Deonas said it wasn’t until the early 1970s that he noticed the area beginning to grow.
“We didn’t have McDonald’s. We didn’t have any fast food at all,” he said.
According to the U.S. Census, the city had almost 7,000 residents in 1970.
Deonas said that during the early part of that decade, a corporation moved onto the island and brought with it a lot of change.
That change, Deonas said, has continued and resulted in his “sleepy little town” turning into a place where it’s sometimes chaotic because of the number of people.
According to research from the University of Florida, the permanent resident population in Fernandina Beach last year was 13,949 and grew to over 16,000 during the seasonal period. In 25 years, the permanent resident population is expected to increase to 16,553, with the seasonal population expected to be 19,192.
This is a vast difference from the growth the county could see, which could nearly double from its current size and have almost 198,000 residents by 2050.
“Within the city itself, it is relatively stable. Flat growth,” Kelly Gibson, Director of Planning and Conservation for the City of Fernandina Beach, said.
Gibson said even though the city won’t see a population boom in the coming decades, it still has to be able to accommodate those moving to the county because people from those developing areas will come into their downtown, use their beaches and other resources.
“We have each department director, the chief of police and our fire chief, as well as our parks and recreation director, all evaluate the impact that development will have on their services,” Gibson said. “Coordination is key. There’s no doubt about it. We have to have coordination at various levels. At the local level, internally and with our county partners as well as with state and regional level coordination of the impact of that growth.”
Deonas said he’s one of the few locals who doesn’t mind the growth the city is seeing and will see. However, he feels like the local government hasn’t done enough to address some infrastructure issues.
“All of these people, well, they have automobiles. There’s nowhere to park,” Deonas said.
Deonas said he also feels like city leaders need to do more when it comes to displaying the area’s history.
“They lost the nuts and bolts of what they need in order to anchor, what was here. How did we get here? And if you can’t preserve that question, how did we get from point A to point B? What was it like? What sacrifices were made?” Deonas said.
Deonas said that preservation could look like putting a museum back on the waterfront and dedicating it to shrimping, an industry that helped put Fernandina on the map.
Meanwhile, Gibson said the development that will come to the area in the future will hopefully continue to support the economy, reflect the area’s character, and make residents happy.
