ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Plans to build a 350-room lodge, pickleball courts and a disc golf course at Anastasis State Park have caused an uproar in the community, with many calling the development plan “unnecessary” and “misguided.”
Northeast Florida leaders held a news conference Wednesday at the Embassy Suites in St. Augustine Beach to speak out against the “Great Outdoors Initiative.”
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The Embassy Suites has 217 suites, compared to the 350 rooms planned for the lodge at Anastasia State Park.
Right now, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection only lists one other lodge at a state park, a 27-room building in Wakulla Springs, just south of Tallahassee. It was built decades before the property was sold to the state.
A better comparison size-wise is a 350-room lodge run by Hilton at Gulf State Park in Alabama (shown below).
The FLDEP has defended the plan as a way to attract more people to the parks. According to the agency’s data, attendance at state parks has been relatively stable -- around 30 million visitors a year -- with a short dip during the pandemic before an increase in 2022.
The economic impact hovers around $3 billion a year.
The state plans to hold public meetings on the changes next week but so far, it has not released any specifics.