DUNED, Fla. (AP) – Opponents of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to build golf courses, hotels, pickleball fields and other development in Florida state parks staged protests in several locations Tuesday as pressure mounted against the proposal.
The Republican governor’s Department of Environmental Protection announced the plans last week and had scheduled an hour-long public hearing near nine parks. A proposal for a golf course at one park was rejected amid growing uproar, and the agency postponed hearings for at least a week — if they happen at all.
“It’s the opposite of what our parks are about,” said Democratic state Rep. Lindsey Cross before a rally outside Honeymoon Island State Park on the central Gulf Coast, where a plan calls for pickle fields near its pristine sugar-sand beaches. . “It’s a place to slow down, connect with nature.”
About 150 people gathered at the Honeymoon Island event, many carrying signs with slogans such as “Save Don’t Pave” and “Parks Over Profit.” Similar protests were held Tuesday at three other parks and at state DEP headquarters in the Tallahassee area.
“The reason for all this was to make a profit from our state parks,” said Jeff Gow, a city councilor in Dunedin, which is connected to Honeymoon Island by a causeway. “It’s just misguided.”
Opposition to what the governor calls the “Great Outdoors Initiative” has spanned party lines, with top Republican legislative leaders and GOP U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio have raised questions along with Democrats and environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Cleo Institute.
Florida has 175 state parks covering approximately 800,000 hectares (320,000 acres) in all regions of the state. Some are recognized as having some of the best beaches in the country and have resisted previous efforts to develop them.
“We have to stay vigilant and not stop,” said Clearwater Audubon Society vice president and conservation advocate Kim Begay.
Emails seeking comment from DeSantis’ office and the DEP were not immediately returned Tuesday. The governor’s office has defended the plan as a way to attract more people to the parks by offering golf, pickle ball, Frisbee golf and even a couple of 350-room hotels.
However, the overall plan is on the table. One proposal for golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in southeast Florida was dropped after the lead proponent, a nonprofit organization called the Tuskegee Dunes Foundation, withdrew the proposal amid mounting objections.
Tuskegee Dunes, designed to honor the famed World War II Tuskegee Airmen all-Black unit, had promised to avoid environmentally sensitive areas in the park and transfer proceeds to another nonprofit, Folds of Honor, which provides scholarships to military and first responders.
Dunedin resident Michelle Birnbaum said it was wrong to consider wild lands as wasted space.
“Green space is an economic value,” he said at the Honeymoon Island rally. “Our parks are parks.”
