An unexpected Florida plan to jazz up wilderness in state parks with golf courses, hotels and pickleball courts has outraged conservationists who say the proposals violate state law and tarnish areas of staggering beauty.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees state parks, announced the plans Monday, triggering a flurry of objections.
Under the proposals, nine parks from St. Augustine to Tampa and Miami — which include habitats for vanishing species, the site of wade-in protests to desegregate beaches in the 1960s and swaths of pristine beaches — could get trendy pickleball courts and hotels.
READ MORE: Florida parks plan includes golf and pickleball
At Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, a park that holds the largest protected habitat for threatened Florida scrub jays, officials are recommending golf courses at two different locations.
“This proposal completely bypasses, completely skirts the very established process for making decisions about what's going to go on in parks,” said Eric Draper, who served as state park director from 2017 to 2021.
Even if they followed laws, Draper said the proposals run counter to the mission of state parks.
“The primary purpose for state parks, as opposed to other state lands, is to conserve natural resources,” he said. “They're for recreation, but it's recreation based upon enjoying natural resources.”
State officials did not respond to WLRN’s requests for more information. They’ve scheduled a one-hour public meeting Aug. 27 at each of eight parks, where they will take public comment.
After DEP quietly posted an announcement on its web site Monday, a retired state worker forwarded a memo about internal plans to WLRN the next day. While it was unclear where the memo originated, it reflected FDEP plans outlined in amendments to management plans for each park.
The memo said the governor’s office ordered park staff to come up with the amendments to plans at nine state parks. Park planning staff had been told to play pre-recorded presentations at public meetings and gather feedback without answering questions.
'The worst place to try and build a golf course.'
Among the more elaborate plans under consideration are the golf facilities at Jonathan Dickinson State Park straddling the Indian River Lagoon, where pollution from urban run-off and farms has repeatedly fueled algae blooms and killed miles of seagrass.
“A golf course takes a huge amount of water. It takes a huge amount of chemicals to keep it green,” Draper said. “So this is the worst place to try and build a golf course.”
In 2011, a proposal by state lawmakers to hire Jack Nicklaus to design and build golf courses on state park land quickly died after environmentalists objected. According to the National Golf Foundation, Florida already has the most golf courses in the country.
Further north, at Anastasia State Park and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, plans call for hotels along pristine beaches just minutes from dozens of hotels in St. Augustine and Destin.
Audubon Florida and Friends of the Everglades have called for supporters to write state officials to object. "Clearing FL state parks for golf courses + motels? Make your opinion heard," Audubon director Julie Wraithmell tweeted Monday. The Florida Wildlife Federation also started an online petition.
Late Wednesday, FDEP tweeted its own responses on X, saying it needed to clear up confusion: "Pickleball continues to be the fastest growing sport in the U.S., so why not add it to one of our most visited parks?"
But the agency still struggles to address a more troubling problem, Draper said: chronic underfunding that has created a massive backlog of maintenance woes.
“At Mizell-Johnson, a really beautiful park close to the Fort Lauderdale port, we couldn't figure out how to fix the bathrooms when I was there,” he said.
“The primary purpose for state parks ... is to conserve natural resources. They're for recreation, but it's recreation based upon enjoying natural resources ... I've never seen what is being done right now.”Eric Draper, former Florida state park director
At the time, the agency was also searching for money to install a program explaining the park’s place in history as the site of local wade-in protests to desegregate beaches.
“But pickleball at Mizell-Johnson?” he said. “It's not the thing that the staff there would have identified as an important need.”
Under state law, management plans for parks over 160 acres are required to be developed by an advisory group. In addition to state officials, members should include local private property owners, a local conservation group and a local elected official. In its announcement, FDEP said the proposals were part of its Great Outdoors Initiative, but provided few details. The only previous effort under the initiative was a 50% discount on park entrance fees last year.
“Amending a [park] management plan always starts with a local process,” because local staff, volunteers and conservation groups are better suited to know the parks’ needs, Draper said. “I've never seen what is being done right now.”
To find more details on the proposals for each park and information about meetings, click on the following links: Oleta River State Park, Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Mizell-Johnson State Park, Anastasia State Park, Hillsborough River State Park, Honeymoon Island State Park, Camp Helen State Park and Topsail Hill Preserve and Grayton Beach State Parks.
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