Opponents stage protests against Florida state parks development plans pushed by DeSantis

DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP) — Opponents of a plan pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to build golf courses, hotels, pickleball courts and other development at Florida state parks staged protests Tuesday at several sites as pressure builds against the proposal.

The Republican governor’s Department of Environmental Protection unveiled the plans last week and had planned a single hour of public hearings near the nine affected parks. Amid growing outcry, a golf course proposal at one park was abandoned and the agency delayed hearings until at least week — if they happen at all.

“It’s just contrary to what our parks are about,” said Democratic state Rep. Lindsey Cross prior to a rally outside Honeymoon Island State Park along the central Gulf coast, where the plan envisions pickleball courts to be constructed near its unspoiled sugar-sand beaches. “It’s a place to slow down, to reconnect 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 took place Tuesday at three other parks and at the state DEP headquarters in Tallahassee.

“The reason all this came about was to make a profit from our state parks,” said Jeff Gaw, a City Council member in Dunedin, which is connected by a causeway to Honeymoon Island. “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 raising questions along with Democrats and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Cleo Institute.

Florida boasts 175 state parks that cover some 800,000 acres (320,000 hectares) in all regions of the state. Some are recognized as have some of the nation’s best beaches and have resisted past efforts to develop them.

“We must remain vigilant and we will not stop,” said Kim Begay, vice president and conservation advocate at the Clearwater Audubon Society.

Emails seeking comment from DeSantis’ office and the DEP were not immediately answered Tuesday. The governor’s office has defended the plan as a way to attract more people to the parks by featuring golf, pickleball, disc golf, even a couple of 350-room hotels.

Yet the overall plan remains on the table. One proposal for golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in southeast Florida was scrapped after the main proponent, a nonprofit called Tuskegee Dunes Foundation, backed out amid the growing objections to the proposal.

Tuskegee Dunes, which planned to honor the famed World War II Tuskegee Airmen all-Black unit, had promised to steer clear of environmentally sensitive areas at the park and funnel proceeds to another nonprofit, Folds of Honor, that provides scholarships for the military and to first responders.

Dunedin resident Michelle Birnbaum said it’s wrong to consider wild lands to be wasted space.

“Green space is an economic value,” she said at the Honeymoon Island rally. “Our parks are in the business of being parks.”