Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is one of the most divisive politicians in the country, but his proposal to develop three state parks with golf courses, hotels, and more was met with bipartisan furor.
A little over a week after plans were unveiled, DeSantis said Aug. 28 that the plans were on hold until 2025 and that the state would go "back to the drawing board," as the Tampa Bay Times reported.
"We're not going to take away any green space," DeSantis told the newspaper. "If we do nothing, then that's fine with me."
That stance stood in stark contrast to how the Department of Environmental Protection reacted to blowback the prior week: by defending the strangely named Great Outdoors Initiative, announced Aug. 19, that would plant three golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, near Florida's southeast coast.
Part of the state's prized system — which last year hosted 28 million visitors and contributed $3.9 billion to the economy, per the Florida Phoenix — it's known for its trails and birding, The Washington Post reported. The proposal also called for 350-room hotels to be built at Anastasia State Park and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park. The latter features untouched sand dunes, clean white sand, and clear blue water.
Up to four pickleball courts were slated to be created at seven parks, among other changes, according to the Times.
The administration's reversal marked a win for conservationists and public action, as Floridians swiftly condemned the plans and turned out by the hundreds to protest for days.
"Together, we all stopped DeSantis from bulldozing and paving our state parks. Now he acts clueless," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat, wrote on X, per the Times. "We need DeSantis to release all records on this greedy land grab, plus an [inspector general] investigation into who really backed it."
Even before the backlash crescendoed, however, state officials and lawmakers panned the project, as the Post detailed.
"Public lands should be enjoyed and protected, but we have to be really careful when we talk about building infrastructure on state parks," Republican Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Wilton Simpson said in a statement, according to the Post. "Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should do it."
Environmental lawyer and state environment expert Clay Henderson told the Post that Topsail Hill Preserve was "like a museum" that showed how South Florida looked before everything was "ditched and drained and paved over."
State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, told the Times: "I think that they misjudged the public's feelings on this one."
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