South Amelia’s Next Beach Rebuild Is Pegged for 2030 or Later. The Permit Work Is Planned for This Budget Year.
The nonprofit that runs the south end’s assessment-funded sand project meets Friday morning in Yulee. A county notice says its next steps are state permit work for a future renourishment and replacing a project director who plans to retire.
Property owners on the south end of Amelia Island pay assessments for the sand that protects their dunes. The group that manages that money says the next big sand placement is targeted for 2030 or later. Its trustees review the year Friday in a meeting the public is invited to attend.
The South Amelia Island Shore Stabilization Association, known as SAISSA, will hold its fourth-quarter trustee meeting at 10 a.m. Friday, November 13, at the Nassau County Administrative Building in the James S. Page Governmental Complex, 96135 Nassau Place, Yulee. A notice Nassau County posted November 10 says the public is invited to participate. The notice does not include a formal agenda or say how public comment will be handled.
The stated purpose is a look back: trustees will review SAISSA’s activities for the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2026. The notice says they want the “capital and Maintenance dollars assessed and spent” to be well stewarded, and it notes that the trustees are property owners themselves.
Two things the notice flags for the year ahead
Looking to fiscal 2027, the notice names two activities outside SAISSA’s normal routine.
First, permit work. SAISSA says it will use beach-condition data collected this past summer in its Year-5 physical monitoring study to start working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on what the agency needs in order to release an existing permit for a second renourishment “in 2030, or later.” That is a planning target in a meeting notice. It is not an approved project, a construction schedule or a funding decision.
Second, a handoff. The notice says project director Bill Moore has announced that he wants to retire in late 2027, and that the trustees have to find someone to take over those responsibilities.
How the sand project works
SAISSA’s own frequently asked questions, dated May 2023, describe the south end as an eroding shoreline where placed sand is designed to wear away and be replaced. The page lists an initial restoration in 1994, maintenance projects in 2002 and 2011, and a most recent renourishment that finished in spring 2022 after about three to four months of work. It says surveys showed about 80 percent of the 2011 sand had eroded by 2020, and that the interval between renourishments has grown from eight years to ten. A 2030-or-later target is consistent with that spacing.
The same page says the sand was dredged from the ebb shoal at Nassau Sound, off the island’s southern tip, and that the beach is tracked with annual profile surveys. It names Olsen Associates of Jacksonville as the project’s engineering firm.
The permit named in Friday’s notice is not identified by number. An older SAISSA web page describes a December 2018 application to the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a 15-year permit that would allow one project at the time and another at the next renourishment. This report has not confirmed with the state that it is the same permit.
Who pays
SAISSA says it administers the South Amelia Island Municipal Services Benefit Unit under an agreement with the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners, which acts as the unit’s governing body. The unit’s oceanfront runs from the southern limit of Burney Park to the northern limit of Amelia Island State Park, according to that page, and it covers both developed and undeveloped property. SAISSA’s program page lists assessments on roughly 2,000-plus property owners among the project’s funding sources, along with Nassau County government and, for the 1994 project, state and federal grants.
What the notice does not give is a dollar figure. It lists no budget, no assessment rate and no cost estimate for a future renourishment. We did not verify the current assessment amounts for this report and are not publishing older figures as if they were current.
If you go
The meeting is Friday, November 13, at 10 a.m. in Yulee. The county notice says anyone needing an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act should contact the County Manager’s Office at (904) 530-6010; it asks for 72 hours’ notice. Owners inside the benefit unit who want to know what a 2030 project could mean for future assessments can ask trustees what the monitoring study found, what the state requires before the permit can be used, and when a cost estimate will be made public.
Primary sources
- Nassau County, Notice of SAISSA Board Meeting, posted November 10, 2026: meeting date, time and place, fiscal-year review, permit work, 2030-or-later target and project director’s planned retirement; checked November 12, 2026.
- South Amelia Island Shore Stabilization Association, FAQs, dated May 2023: project history, erosion of the 2011 sand, renourishment interval, sand source, monitoring and engineer; checked November 12, 2026.
- SAISSA, About SAISSA, undated page: benefit unit, county commission’s role and boundaries; checked November 12, 2026.
- SAISSA, Program, undated page: funding sources and property-owner assessments; checked November 12, 2026.
- SAISSA, earlier home page, entry dated December 2018: 15-year permit application; checked November 12, 2026.
Status: The 2030-or-later renourishment is a planning target stated in a meeting notice. No project, cost or assessment change has been approved in the cited records. Current assessment amounts were not verified for this report.