NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Concerns are growing over the state’s development plans at nine parks throughout Florida amid concerns of harming fragile ecosystems.
Local 10 News reporter and anchor Glenna Milberg was at Oleta River State Park in North Miami Beach Tuesday where people were protesting against the plans.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to develop state parks with business ventures -- such as golf courses, pickleball courts and large hotels to leverage more revenue -- has also received opposition from politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Republican Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio joined GOP Rep. Brian Mast in a letter contending the compressed time frame was far too fast to fully air the plans. Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor said in a social media post the ideas were “outrageous” and rooted in policies that “prioritize profits over our planet.”
Protests across the state have paused most of the plan.
“Keep Florida wild,” and “Save our parks,” were written on some of the signs during Tuesday’s protest at Oleta.
The concept of the plans in each of the parks are a little different, but the concept overall is the same -- to replace nature with recreational kind of development.
Oleta is one of the parks where the Department of Environmental Protection wants to make some of these updates.
The idea is that bringing golf courses, pickleball courts and hotels to some parks will help bring in more people who may not just visit the parks for nature.
The public almost universally saw that as a land grab in one of those installments of nature versus development in Florida.
“They just want to destroy nature for their own profits,” protester Erick Magyar said.
Protestor Catalina Lemaitre shared the personal impact of the proposed changes.
“We spend a lot of our time in these state parks and we know exactly what we would be losing,” she said.
The DEP’s plan, announced as a way to increase park use, has been met with criticism for its lack of public input and failure to follow proper protocols. The plan was developed without consulting the State Acquisition and Restoration Council, the body responsible for deciding on park developments.
The backlash has been swift and widespread. The Tuskegee Dunes Foundation, an organization credited with proposing the golf courses at Dickinson State Park, has since retracted the idea following the public outcry.
Neither the DEP nor the governor’s office has addressed the controversy, leaving many unanswered questions about the future of the state parks.
“I haven’t stopped talking about it since Tuesday, and I know that there’s a lot of people that are just as passionate as me that have been doing the same all across our state because we spend a lot of our time in these state parks and we know exactly what we would be losing,” Lemaitre said.
Public meetings were expected to be held this week for the state to present the plans to the public, but the Department of Environmental Protection has paused most of those meetings, claiming because of the high interest, they needed bigger venues for the meetings.
Over at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, a nonprofit called Tuskegee Dunes Foundation withdrew its proposal to build golf courses there amid the outcry.
It wasn’t clear Tuesday what impact the Dickinson decision might have on DEP’s overall “Great Outdoors Initiative.”