This article is intended to give you a brief overview of what Amelia Island is like and why some of us who live here like it here. It is more intended for someone who is considering moving to the area vs. just visiting, but there may be a bit of information here that the tourists will find useful.

The word 'island' brings different pictures to mind - for some of us it causes visions of white beaches with palm trees surrounded by miles of ocean - but that's not really the case here. While Amelia has the white beaches - on one side - we aren't really surrounded by miles of water and you could easily drive through on a trip up or down Florida's coast and not have the slightest clue that you were even on an island.

There's a lot of water to the south of the island (Nassau Sound) and a bridge that crosses it that's a few miles long. The north end is separated from the mainland by a bridge which crosses some water - big creek/small river - but not much. Of course there's the ocean to the east - lots of water - but the western side of the island is separated by mostly marsh, creeks, and the Amelia River. Being here never gives you the sense you will need a boat or an airplane to get to safety, by any means.

Amelia Island is small - roughly 18.2 square miles - so it's definitly not the big city by any stretch of the imagination. The pace is slow, and there aren't any dinner theatres or operas to visit. But then again there aren't any freeways and you don't have to drive very far to get most things you'll need - and the beach is never more than two miles away. It's a tourist town. But not on the scale of places like Myrtle Beach or Ocean City. A busy day of tourism here would make a real tourist resort cringe at the lack of business. Amelia Island has it's share of tourists, I guess, but not enough so that you'd notice and they don't seem to ever get in the way, not even during the summer months.

If you really need the things that the big city has to offer, they aren't far away - Jacksonville is a thirty or forty minute drive, depending on where you are going (Jacksonville is a big place) - but if you fall into the same category as most of the locals, a trip to Jacksonville is not much more fun than doing tax returns or going to the dentist.

We can divide the island into basically three zones - the north end is the city of Fernandina Beach, the middle section of the island is just Amelia Island - and the majority of the southern third of the island is included in Amelia Island Plantation. It's very obvious that the island was developed in a southerly direction - the farther south you travel, the newer things are. This is especially noticeable when it comes to housing - the more expensive housing areas (with the exception of houses right on the beach) are found as you travel south.

Downtown Fernandina Beach is the 'older' section of the island, and includes the island's fifty block historic district. The heart of downtown Fernandina Beach is Centre Street, where you'll find the Chamber of Commerce (great place to find brochures), the Palace Saloon - Florida's oldest saloon, and a constantly changing array of art galleries, ice cream shops, T-shirt stores, and real estate offices. Most tourists to the area eventually find their way to Centre Street - especially during the Shrimp Festival, since that's where it's held - but the locals don't seem to gravitate to the area - too touristy I guess.

Fernandina Beach has it's own police department, although they don't venture outside the city limits so they don't police the entire island. The Nassau County Sheriff's Department covers the areas of the island that are not in Fernandina. The crime rate here seems to be relatively low, and although we don't leave the doors unlocked at night, we feel much safer here than we would in other places. The island has an excellent fire department/rescue squad that is very well equipped, and the island has a small hospital that is centrally located.

The center of the island has seemed to develop into the 'suburbs', for lack of a better term. The housing is newer than the stately older brick homes you'll find on Atlantic Avenue in Fernandina, and is relegated to mostly subdivision style housing. The building style leans more towards the Florida Beachy feel. The major shopping areas have also popped up, conveniently, in the middle section of the island. There are no malls on Amelia Island - if you want the mall experience, you'll have to make the dreaded Jacksonville trip - but life's everyday necessities are readily available and not far away.

There are three major grocery store near the center of the island - Publix, Winn Dixie, and Food Lion, and one a little farther south, near Summer Beach, Harris Teeter. Walmart and Kmart are near the middle of the island also - Kmart in the strip mall with Publix and Walmart a short distance north in the strip mall with Winn Dixie. There are many local businesses that range from auto parts stores to cell phone stores to insurance companies that dot the landscape near the center of the island, and as we mentioned earlier, there really isn't much that you'll need that you can't find here. The island has a large Staples store (office supplies) and a few small computer/electronic stores also, including a Radio Shack.

The southern end of Amelia Island includes some large condo developments, Summer Beach, is the home of the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island hotel, and is mostly encompassed by Amelia Island Plantation. The plantation is comprised of gated communities of various style housing, from patio homes to condos to multi million dollar single family homes, and also has several world class golf courses. This is the area where you will find Amelia Island's most expensive real estate, but as development continues on the entire island, real estate prices here in general have risen substantially in recent years. Amelia Island Plantation is also famous for the Bausch and Lomb Tennis Tournament, which is played there every year in April.

Fernandina Beach's zip code not only encompasses the island itself, but moves in a westerly direction off the island (on A1A). Cross the bridge leaving the island on A1A and you find lots of housing - and more of a country atmosphere - that has sprung up in later years. Since we ran out real estate on our southern trek, west seems to now be the primary direction in which most developers are moving. Which isn't all bad, because the expansion west has provided the Amelia Island locals with a few things that they really needed - most notably a brand new, very big Lowe's hardware store - and most recently a brand new, very big Super Walmart. Not that anybody really needs TWO Walmarts, but on those days when the locals feel adventurous and feel the need for a road trip, they make the ten minute drive to the 'mainland' see what the Big Walmart has to offer. And Lowes has saved the locals countless trips to Jacksonville to the big hardware stores.

One of the things Amelia Island doesn't seem to have to offer in great quantity or interesting format is employment. It's by no means the high tech capitol of Florida, and other than the retail and hospitality industries, there do not seem to be many career opportunities available here. Which is, I imagine, a trend common to other islands, like Oahu in Hawaii, where many kids grow up, attend school, and wind up leaving because of better paying jobs and more opportunities elsewhere. And it also follows Murphy's Law of Employment which seems to fit all over America - the nicer someplace is to live, the harder it is to find a job there. That's why A1A and the route past the Super Walmart and Lowes is very busy during morning and evening rush hours - many island residents make the daily drive to employment in Jacksonville, Georgia, or points farther north and south.

There also seems to be a strange, unseen resistance to change here. Not much, if anything seems to be happening to attract anything that would create real jobs. Not that working at Walmart isn't a real job, but not every kid that graduates from college has aspirations that include retail. The fact that six house subdivisions are being built anyplace that a bulldozer can fit into to level doesn't seem to bother anyone, but you get the distinct feeling that someone is trying to keep as many businesses away from the area as possible. Which may be bad, or good, depending on your point of view. Good for residents who don't need to work, not so good for those who do.

One lifelong local resident told me that "This was a great place when it was Fernandina Beach. When they started calling it Amelia Island, things started going down hill". I think I can understand what she meant. What's the master plan, or better yet, is there one? If there is, it was created either by the people who collect the property taxes or someone who owns a gas station - why create all this housing when there's nothing here for the people who live in it to do? Could it be that Amelia Island is Florida's premier retirement community gone haywire? Or maybe Amelia Island is intended as a retirement community for real estate agents....

From this writer's viewpoint, and with the exception of housing, housing, everywhere, the landscape of Amelia Island really hasn't changed much in the last twenty years. The addition of the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island and some large condo developments have changed the southern real estate a bit, but there are a few blocks on 8th street, the main north/south drag on in Fernandina Beach, that still make you blink some days because you feel you've time warped back to the 1970's.

But people have amazingly different perspectives about anything - and Amelia Island is no different. In summary, we feel that Amelia Island is great place to live (if you don't need a job), and a great place for a vacation - especially if you like Shrimp Pies and don't have a type A personality.

Slow pace. No traffic. Nice beach. Great fishing. Great place to sit on the porch and watch the grass grow and the cars rust. How slow can you go? Very, we hope.

If you are thinking about moving here, don't forget the sun block - nobody likes bright red locals.

Article By Amelia Island Online Staff