A new bill would nix controversial developments at Florida State Parks

©2024 The News Service of Florida

Months after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration introduced controversial plans to bring golf courses, resort-style lodges and pickleball courts to state parks, a lawmaker filed a measure to make such proposed changes off-limits.

State Sen. Gayle Harrell on Wednesday filed a bill (SB 80) that would strike golf courses, tennis courts, pickleball courts and ball fields from recreational uses at state parks.

The Stuart Republican’s proposal, dubbed the “State Park Preservation Act,” also would limit camping cabins to a maximum of six occupants.

Harrell filed the bill for consideration during the 2025 legislative session that begins March 4.

Harrell was among lawmakers and residents who erupted after the state Department of Environmental Protection in August released plans for what was called the “Great Outdoors Initiative.”

The plan targeting nine parks included three proposed golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, which is located in Harrell’s Senate district. DeSantis paused the plan amid bipartisan uproar, calling the initiative “half-baked.”

He also maintained that the proposed golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson were being “misrepresented” because they would have been placed in an area within the 11,500-acre park that was once a military base.

Harrell’s proposal would require state parks to be “managed in a manner that will provide the greatest combination of benefits to the public and to the land’s natural resources.”

The bill would allow parks to offer, among other things, fishing, camping, bicycling, hiking, swimming, boating, canoeing, horseback riding, jogging, sailing, diving “and similar conservation-based public recreational uses.”

The proposal would prohibit “sports that require sporting facilities, such as golf courses, tennis courts, pickleball fields, and other similar facilities.”

The Department of Environmental Protection’s scrapped plan also would have allowed lodges with up to 350 rooms at Anastasia State Park in St. Johns County and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Walton County.

The Topsail Hill plans also included four pickleball courts and a disc golf course in an “underutilized” area. Additional cabins, pickleball courts or disc golf also were proposed for Oleta River State Park in Miami-Dade County, Honeymoon Island State Park in Pinellas County, Camp Helen State Park in Bay County, Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park in Broward County, Grayton Beach State Park in Walton County and Hillsborough River State Park in Hillsborough County.

Harrell’s bill would prohibit construction activities within a state park that “may cause significant harm to the resources” of the park. Her measure also would ban the construction of lodges.