MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – State lawmakers who are members of both major political parties have come together, united against plans to develop inside nine state parks.
The development plans include full golf courses, hotels and even pickleball courts.
Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection has now postponed public meetings about it, citing “overwhelming interest” instead of overwhelming backlash, and doubled down promoting the proposals.
For Oleta River State Park in North Miami, they are talking about adding disc golf.
At Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park in Hollywood, pickleball courts.
Then there is Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Jupiter. The three-golf course plan was entirely scrapped last weekend, but not by the state.
An under the radar organization called Tuskegee Dunes Foundation put one post on its one-page website, taking responsibility for the idea, golf for charity, and then ending it because of public outcry.
Local 10 News found that the GoDaddy web domain was just created on Sunday, and that the foundation has ties to a veterans charity that had pitched golf courses in state parks in the past.
It also has a Florida lobbyist who had been interim secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection.