Photo: Florida DEP
The plan to develop some of Florida’s state parks with new amenities such as golf courses and pickleball courts has not yet been cancelled, but after overwhelmingly negative feedback from the public and pushback from Florida’s two US Senators, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has rescheduled public meetings and created a web page for the public to offer their feedback.
Eight meetings had been scheduled for Tuesday, August 27th at various sites throughout the state, but that changed on Friday when FDEP said in a post X.com that new meeting dates will be announced for the week of September 2.
Statement From Florida Senators and legislators
Senators Rick Scott, and Marco Rubio, US Representative Brian Mast along with several Florida legislators sent a very strongly worded statement calling for “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida’s Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC) board members urging them to hold more substantial public comment periods to allow Floridians and stakeholders to voice their opinions on a recent proposal that will allow golf courses and hotels to be built on Florida state parks. Senator Scott is encouraging the state to also have substantial public comment periods, each attended by the ARC, for communities affected by this proposal to fully understand its potential impacts.”
There is a Change.org petition currently with over 60,000 signatures calling for plans for a golf course at Jonathan Dickinson State Park to be scuttled. “The amount of development in the area for these golf courses would destroy not just the habitat directly where the golf courses will go, but also the surrounding environment,” the petition states. “Fertilizer runoff, parking lots, club houses and bathrooms- all things that come with golf courses. Along with foot traffic and golf carts disturbing endangered native wildlife like gopher tortoises and the Florida Scrub Lizard. The Florida Scrub habitat is the most endangered in the state with only 10-15% of the original environment remaining.”
“It’s frustrating to say the very least,” Ted Verbockel, a farmer in the Jupiter Farms area told WPTV recently. “It’s just an incredibly beautiful place, you’ll see everything, birds, turtles, lizards. We obviously we don’t need three golf courses here, that makes no sense whatsoever.”
The Florida State Parks group on Facebook has also been nearly universally derisive of the plans.
“I can’t put a campsite on my personal property but you can put a resort and golf course on protected state land. Something is wrong with the rule making in my state,” Terri Readdy said in the group.
Laura Luter, another member of the group, pointed out that “As a state park pass holder (actually 2 passes in our household), someone who volunteers at several parks and has logged in over 500 hours in the past 18 months, an avid pickleball player and RVer, and a FL resident who desires to visit ALL of the state parks (126 done so far), I have to say that the proposed development including hotels, golf courses and pickleball courts is not needed. I grew up in Palm Beach county and know the burgeoning numbers of golf courses available in the immediate vicinity of Jonathan Dickinson State Park.”
Luter has a point — there are an estimated forty-seven golf courses within a 20-mile radius of Dickinson State Park, raising questions about why one is needed in Dickinson State Park.
These Are Your Parks – Participate
Participate in the public comment process and to make their feelings — one way or the other — known to FDEP.
