The state Department of Environmental Protection has pushed back a series of meetings about a controversial proposal to add lodges, pickleball and golf at state parks.
The News Service of Florida reported Friday that eight meetings had been scheduled for Tuesday at sites throughout the state, but the department said Friday in a post on the social media site X that new meeting dates will be announced for the week of Sept. 2.
“We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate,” the department said. The post said the agency was looking for new venues to accommodate the public.
The proposal, dubbed the “Great Outdoors Initiative,” has drawn opposition from Republican and Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups. The proposed changes, which would affect nine parks, include lodges of up to 350 rooms, pickleball courts, disc golf courses and golf courses.
The Florida Trident, a publication of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, called a statement, made by the DeSantis administration Friday, "a masterpiece of spin and understatement" that credited “overwhelming interest” for temporarily pausing a scheme to put golf courses, hotels and pickleball courts in nine of Florida’s pristine state parks.
“Overwhelming opposition” better describes the thunderous “Hell no!” Tallahassee was hearing from private citizens and public officials throughout the state. “(O)verwhelming disgust and hatred,” ventured Florida author Jeff VanderMeer in a post on X.
The Trident reported Sunday that secretive groups behind the plan heard the dissent loud and clear. In a release to the Florida Trident today (as well as a public statement on its website), the Tuskegee Dunes Foundation acknowledged it sponsored the plan to build on the park and has pulled out due to the public backlash.
“We have received clear feedback that Jonathan Dickinson State Park is the [sic] not the right location [for the golf courses],” the group wrote. “We did not understand the local community landscape and appreciate the clarity. We will not pursue building in the beloved [park].”
The Trident also said that the DEP said it would be looking for larger venues to accommodate the mass turnouts that were looming despite the DEP’s tactic of scheduling the hearings for a weekday afternoon, with no Zoom or other remote access.