TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A bill aimed at preventing a return of efforts to build golf courses, pickleball courts and resorts in state parks is ready to go to the full Florida House.
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The House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday unanimously supported the measure (HB 209), which sponsor John Snyder, R-Stuart, said seeks to prevent “unintended development within the state park system.” It came after widespread opposition last year to a plan dubbed the “Great Outdoors Initiative” by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
While Snyder’s bill is headed to the House floor, it remains to be seen how the issue will progress in the Senate. A Senate version of the bill (SB 80) still would need to clear two more committees in the final weeks of the legislative session.
Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, has voiced support for some aspects of the proposal. But he also noted his wife is a pickleball player and that courts could be a park enhancement that would not disturb “natural Florida.”
“It’s really about achieving balance,” Albritton told reporters March 27.
“We can have the conversation about, you know, what’s disrupting and what is not, and try to enhance that experience for Floridians,” Albritton added.
The Department of Environmental Protection proposal last year called for golf courses, resort-style lodges and pickleball courts at 10 state parks. The proposal was pulled back after the public outcry. Gov. Ron DeSantis at one point described it as “half-baked.”
Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, said the proposed House bill would protect all 175 state parks.
“This is an example of when the public is able to shift the Legislature and really get positive changes,” Cross said. “We don’t always see that. When you’re an environmentalist and you love conservation, you’re often on the losing end and you have to continue to fight over and over again.”
A focus of last year’s plan was adding golf courses in the 11,500-acre Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County. It also included building lodges with up to 350 rooms at Anastasia State Park in St. Johns County and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Walton County.
Pickleball courts and disc golf were outlined for other parks.
Snyder’s proposal was revised Tuesday to clarify that construction could not harm a park’s natural resources, native habitats or historical sites. Construction couldn’t include sporting facilities, such as golf courses, tennis courts, pickleball courts and ball fields.
“There were some loopholes in the original language,” Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples said. “We think it had good intent. But those loopholes have been addressed.”
Also, under Snyder’s proposal, the Division of State Lands would be able to add camping cabins that hold six guests and are “compatible with the state park’s land management plan.”