Gov. Ron DeSantis has distanced himself - and the state government - from controversial plans to initiate large developments in several Florida state parks. The proposals drew mass outrage and protests, forcing DeSantis to take a stance as frustrations began to come to a head. Still, his wording betrayed a possible frustration that Floridians so effectively thwarted the plans.
"I'm totally fine to just do nothing and do no improvements if that's what the general public wants," he said in a press conference on Wednesday. "It was not approved by me, I never saw that. A lot of that stuff was just half-baked, and it was not ready for prime time."
The plans in question, known as the 'Great Outdoors Initiative', would've constructed facilities like hotels, pickleball courts, and golf and disc golf courses on a number of state parks across Florida. Top DeSantis officials staunchly defended the plans in recent weeks, including Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern who likened the project to President Theodore Roosevelt's widely-celebrated conservation initiatives which preceded the creation of the National Park Service just a few years later.
“Teddy Roosevelt believed that public parks were for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, and we agree with him. No administration has done more than we have to conserve Florida’s natural resources, grow conservation lands, and keep our environment pristine,” Redfern said last week to The Associated Press. “But it’s high time we made public lands more accessible to the public.”
The project was facilitated by DeSantis' Department of Environmental Protection. A series of public hearings were initially planned to gauge public opinion on the idea, but they were delayed after it became clear the volume of public opposition exceeded the capacity of the venues to accommodate it. One developer pulled out of a planned golf course construction at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, showing the first major crack in the foundation of the initiative.
The closest affected park to home was Anastasia State Park, located in St. Augustine within St. Johns County. That element of the plan drew a mass protest along SR-A1A this week, one of the largest environmental demonstrations in the recent memory of Northeast Florida. Business owner Adam Morley, a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives, has since taken up the fight as a keystone issue of his campaign.
"I am fired up as all get-out, and you should be too regardless of political affiliation," Morley said this week in a social media address. "To leak those proposals to the public, get everybody fired up, stay silent for a week letting people get so riled up, manipulating them...people took off of work to attend rallies, people invested money and finances into defeating these so-called 'not gonna happen' proposals."
He went on to accuse major Florida Republicans of commandeering attention to an unrelated press conference with the knowledge that reporters would inevitably force DeSantis to address the park issue. "Those who were in on it, they stayed silent," Morley continued. "Looking at you, Speaker of the House [Paul Renner], looking at you, the endorsed-replacement of the Speaker of the House [Sam Greco]."
