Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday pulled the plug on a proposal that would have paved over native habitats and protected beaches in state parks to build golf courses, pickleball courts and large hotels.
The Republican governor backed away from the controversial plan announced by his administration last week after even members of his own party protested. Hundreds demonstrated at the nine parks targeted for development.
“So this is something that was leaked,” DeSantis said at a news conference Wednesday in Winter Haven when he was asked about the plan. “It was not approved by me. I never saw that. They’re going back to the drawing board.”
It was the first time DeSantis has spoken publicly about the issue. The “Great Outdoors Initiative” was announced last week by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and called for building three golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, a stretch of undeveloped land north of Palm Beach popular for its trails and birding.
The plan also proposed building new lodges with space for hundreds of guests at Anastasia State Park near St. Augustine and Topsail Hill Preserve in the Panhandle. The latter has sand dunes that the state park service describes as “especially remarkable because they are untouched by development.”
DeSantis said Wednesday that “a lot of that stuff was just half baked,” and he accused a “left-wing group” of leaking the proposal. The Department of Environmental Protection touted the initiative on social media, so it’s unclear what DeSantis was referring to as a leak. His office did not return a request for comment.
After several days of public outcry, the organization that had proposed the golf courses to the environmental protection division withdrew its plans.
Many of the state’s highest-ranking Republicans, including U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and two members of DeSantis’s Cabinet, condemned the plans and also the rush by the DEP to get them approved.
Public meetings were scheduled to take place this week in cities across the state and last only one hour. Members of the state panel that approves such plans would not have been present at the meetings, according to the letter signed by Scott and others.
“None of them were going to be present to actually hear the community’s comment and hear how the community doesn’t want this,” Republican congressman Brian Mast, whose district includes Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, told ABC News. “You have to have transparent government that’s paying attention to the people, not a government that doesn’t.”
Mast said a golf course at the park would happen “over my dead body.”
Democrats seized on the unpopular plan — more than 100,000 people signed a petition protesting the proposal for Jonathan Dickinson State Park — to say DeSantis is out of touch with regular Floridians.
“Floridians of all political opinions can agree on one thing: we have to protect our state’s natural beauty from overdevelopment,” Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said in a statement.
DeSantis critics said the backlash also underscored the governor’s weakened influence even within his own party since his failed presidential campaign. At the height of his popularity, DeSantis pushed through initiatives with little to no opposition from the GOP-dominated state government.
Eric Draper, the former director of the Florida Parks Service, said the public outrage should convince lawmakers that residents value the parks as protected natural places.
“In an era of partisan argument, this has been the issue that has brought Republicans and Democrats and independents together,” said Draper, who served as state parks director from 2017 to 2021. “As a longtime state environmental leader, I’ve never seen so many people get so organized so quickly and so effectively to raise their voices in defense of the environment. I’m so proud of that, and heartened by what I see.”
The Republican governor backed away from the controversial plan announced by his administration last week after even members of his own party protested. Hundreds demonstrated at the nine parks targeted for development.
“So this is something that was leaked,” DeSantis said at a news conference Wednesday in Winter Haven when he was asked about the plan. “It was not approved by me. I never saw that. They’re going back to the drawing board.”
It was the first time DeSantis has spoken publicly about the issue. The “Great Outdoors Initiative” was announced last week by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and called for building three golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, a stretch of undeveloped land north of Palm Beach popular for its trails and birding.
The plan also proposed building new lodges with space for hundreds of guests at Anastasia State Park near St. Augustine and Topsail Hill Preserve in the Panhandle. The latter has sand dunes that the state park service describes as “especially remarkable because they are untouched by development.”
DeSantis said Wednesday that “a lot of that stuff was just half baked,” and he accused a “left-wing group” of leaking the proposal. The Department of Environmental Protection touted the initiative on social media, so it’s unclear what DeSantis was referring to as a leak. His office did not return a request for comment.
After several days of public outcry, the organization that had proposed the golf courses to the environmental protection division withdrew its plans.
Many of the state’s highest-ranking Republicans, including U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and two members of DeSantis’s Cabinet, condemned the plans and also the rush by the DEP to get them approved.
Public meetings were scheduled to take place this week in cities across the state and last only one hour. Members of the state panel that approves such plans would not have been present at the meetings, according to the letter signed by Scott and others.
“None of them were going to be present to actually hear the community’s comment and hear how the community doesn’t want this,” Republican congressman Brian Mast, whose district includes Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, told ABC News. “You have to have transparent government that’s paying attention to the people, not a government that doesn’t.”
Mast said a golf course at the park would happen “over my dead body.”
Democrats seized on the unpopular plan — more than 100,000 people signed a petition protesting the proposal for Jonathan Dickinson State Park — to say DeSantis is out of touch with regular Floridians.
“Floridians of all political opinions can agree on one thing: we have to protect our state’s natural beauty from overdevelopment,” Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said in a statement.
DeSantis critics said the backlash also underscored the governor’s weakened influence even within his own party since his failed presidential campaign. At the height of his popularity, DeSantis pushed through initiatives with little to no opposition from the GOP-dominated state government.
Eric Draper, the former director of the Florida Parks Service, said the public outrage should convince lawmakers that residents value the parks as protected natural places.
“In an era of partisan argument, this has been the issue that has brought Republicans and Democrats and independents together,” said Draper, who served as state parks director from 2017 to 2021. “As a longtime state environmental leader, I’ve never seen so many people get so organized so quickly and so effectively to raise their voices in defense of the environment. I’m so proud of that, and heartened by what I see.”
