“Your vocal support for our state parks is working! Nearly 250K of you have sent emails slowing down the fast-tracked plan to sell out our state parks” said the email late yesterday from the Florida Wildlife Federation, which began gathering responses online late last week in the wake of leaked development proposals for nine of Florida’s state parks.
When the public discovered a quiet plan in the works that would facilitate the development of golf courses, hotels, pickleball courts and other non-necessities on public lands, there was chaos and outrage followed quickly by a highly organized, resounding NO from the public, particularly here on the Treasure Coast. The plan, also known as the “Great Outdoors Initiative” set social media a flame and drew fire from nearly every environmental organization in the state. Protests erupted in person and online, a Facebook page evolved from 100 followers to more than 47 thousand in 10 days, the governor's office was flooded with phone calls and emails, surveys were submitted by the thousands. So not surprisingly, the required public meetings that were scheduled with less than a week’s notice at small venues around the affected vicinities were promptly postponed.
While the news of the canceled meetings provided a temporary degree of relief, it was also met with a great deal of skepticism for ever having been considered in the first place, accompanied by anger about the way it almost flew under the radar. That, and the overwhelming response to the situation prompted reporters to insist on answers from Governor Ron DeSantis about "The Great Outdoors Initiative" during an unrelated press conference in Polk County on Wednesday.
"It was not approved by me, I never saw that. They're going back to the drawing board," DeSantis told reporters. "I'd rather not spend any money on this. If people don’t want improvements then don’t do it. That’ll be something that citizens will be able to do."
“They’re not going to do anything this year," DeSantis added, referring to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). "They're going to go back and basically listen to folks." And then he said this. "A lot of that stuff was half-baked and it was not ready for prime time and it was intentionally leaked out to a left wing group to try to create a narrative."
Words Matter
Those statements yesterday only seemed to cause more, and perfectly understandable uproar. First, there’s the denial. Hard to believe that the governor knew nothing about all this when his schedule confirms that he met earlier this year with the group that was looking into building golf courses in Florida state parks. Then all the talk of going back to the drawing board, that the plan wasn’t ready for prime time, next year, etc. only implies that the administration fully intends to have another go at it, rather than “basically listening to folks” and just drop it all together. Finally, there’s the political spin that falls flat on its face when propped up against the simple reality that people just don’t want unnecessary encroachment and profiteering on public park lands.
That the vast majority of Floridians respect the land, love their parks, and want to protect their beautiful but fragile environment is hardly a political position, it’s common sense. But the governor was right about one thing. It certainly is half-baked as ideas go, and it seems that the public has no interest in seeing it put back in the oven. Not now, not next year, and probably not ever.