EcoAction Alert

UPDATE 2024-09-01 - The meetings have been cancelled and the 'Great Outdoors Initiative' suspended until further notice. Good work, everyone.

UPDATE 2024-08-23 5pm - DEP announced that the meetings are postponed until the following week, the week of September 2nd.

We need FNPS members to attend meetings that have been scheduled to take public comment on development proposals for 9 State Parks – ALL ON NEXT TUESDAY AFTERNOON (8/27) in:

Stuart, Ft. Lauderdale, North Miami, Tampa, Clearwater, St. Augustine, Panama City Beach, Santa Rosa Beach

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has just announced plans to defile up to 9 of our illustrious State Parks with grossly incompatible development, including golf courses in the scrub of Jonathan Dickinson State Park, a 350-room lodge adjacent to the beach and dunes at Top Sail Hill Preserve State Park, and pickleball courts and a disk golf course in the mesic hammock of Hillsborough River State Park.  The proposed unit management plan amendments and conceptual maps for each of the parks are available in the links below.  It is difficult to comprehend the incompatibility and insensitivity of these proposals, and the process for conducting a public review is similarly outrageous. 

The FDEP announcement of these proposals was released on Tuesday the 20th – and the 8 one-hour public meetings to collect public comment will all be conducted concurrently NEXT TUESDAY, AUGUST 27.  This is a stealth attack on our public lands.  Information on the proposals for each of the 9 affected State Parks (Jonathan Dickinson, Hillsborough River, Honeymoon Island, Anastasia, Topsail Hill Preserve and Grayton Beach, Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson, Oleta River and Camp Helen State Parks), and meeting locations and times, are all available using the links provided below.  If one of these Parks is especially important to you, or if you live near one of these meeting locations and can plan to be present, PLEASE ATTEND and speak in defense of our entire State Park system.  Because if state officials are allowed to get away with this kind of development in these parks, they will not stop there.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park Public Meeting | Florida Department of Environmental Protection

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, 3 – 4 p.m. (ET)

PLACE: The Flagler of Stuart – 201 SW Flagler Ave, River Room, Stuart, FL

Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park Public Meeting | Florida Department of Environmental Protection

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, Aug. 27, 3 – 4 p.m. (ET)

PLACE: Downtown Event Center - 416 NE First Street

Lecture Hall, Building C – 2nd Floor (Enter at Main Entrance B), Fort Lauderdale, FL 

Hillsborough River State Park Public Meeting | Florida Department of Environmental Protection

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, 3 – 4 p.m. (ET)

PLACE: Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library – 2902 W. Bearss Ave, Community Room D, Tampa, FL

Oleta River State Park Public Meeting | Florida Department of Environmental Protection

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, 3 – 4 p.m. (ET)

PLACE: Florida International University – Kovens Conference Center

Room 114, 3000 N.E. 151 Street, North Miami, FL

Honeymoon Island State Park Public Meeting | Florida Department of Environmental Protection

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, 3 – 4 p.m. (ET)

PLACE: The District, 11141 US HWY 19 N., Suite 204, Clearwater, FL

Anastasia State Park Public Meeting | Florida Department of Environmental Protection

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, 3 – 4 p.m. (ET)

PLACE: First Coast Technical College – The Character Counts Conference Center, Building C   2980 Collins Ave, St. Augustine, FL

Camp Helen State Park Public Meeting | Florida Department of Environmental Protection

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, 3 – 4 p.m. (CT)

PLACE: Lyndell Conference Center – 423 Lyndell Lane, Panama City Beach, FL

Topsail Hill Preserve and Grayton Beach State Parks Public Meeting | Florida Department of Environmental Protection

DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, 3 – 4 p.m. (CT)

PLACE: WaterColor Lakehouse – 238 Watercolor Blvd W, Santa Rosa Beach, FL

If you attend, please make it clear you object to the proposals and consider sharing any of these points:

• The mission of the State Park system is to preserve these lands in a natural condition in perpetuity for the enjoyment of all Floridians, current and future.  Preservation should supersede recreational use. 

• Recreational uses allowed in State Parks should be resource-based activities that are dependent on a natural state and condition.  Pickleball courts and disk golf courses can be developed nearly anywhere, and the enjoyment of those activities does not require natural surroundings.

• The enjoyment of compatible, passive recreational uses like hiking, botanizing and wildlife observation can be greatly compromised by uses that intrude on the quiet and solitude of a natural area, and that could be more easily and effectively be provided in urbanized areas. 

• The rare and sensitive natural resources protected in a State Park should never be destroyed or displaced in favor of nonpassive uses.

• Altered areas should be dedicated to habitat restoration or low impact development necessary to provide access for compatible uses.

We will continue to oppose these proposals until they have been withdrawn.  Please watch your inbox for a follow-up alert that will launch the next stage of our opposition.