re: DeSantis Admin Wants to Put Golf Courses, Pickleball Courts and More In FL State Parks

Topsail Park is a gorgeous stretch of untouched beach. Would absolutely suck to throw some lodge on there.

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No golf courses here, just hotel, pickeball & disc golf.

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Link headline says there was a public input meeting. That directly contradicts the other poster who said Desantis didn't take any public input in this operation.

Thanks for the link by the way.


ETA- Topsail state park is 1500 acres. A 350 room hotel on 98 at the entrance won't destroy the park. I don't know about all the pickleball and disc golf stuff. Disc golf courses in my experience are very nature-friendly. Pickle ball, from what I understand, requires pavement. Not a fan of that, but if it's 5 or 6 courts, that's still less than an acre.

The meeting isn’t until August 27, so no input has been given here yet. Folks are sharpening their pitchforks though

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This is a hilarious statement when you get past the pompous environmentalist mindset

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Scrubjay range, per wikipedia-




300 acres of golf courses aren't exactly going to wipe them out.

It’s funded by the taxpayer, they should enjoy it. I live in Florida. Stop putting this on DeSantis, no one gives two shits about this

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deeprig9

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As a Florida native and current panhandle resident,

I think that enough of Florida is being developed if not over-developed that the State Parks do not need this kind of development.

Low impact work might make sense like the frisbee golf - but on the few courses I have seen, I have not seen any players. I don't know what the demand is. Expanding other activities such as paddling makes sense but golf courses do not.

The appearance of this being discussed and planned out of public view with a limited public comment opportunity is a really bad look as well.

i doubt that people are concerned about 350 rooms impacting the profitiability of their VRBOs. The SoWal is building, 350 rooms isn't much.

I don't do golf or pickel. I'd rather see the money go toward buying more public land. And people don't realize that when those things are built they immediately start requiring maintenance/upkeep.

Some people think "just build something and then you're done". No, once the build is done then the perpetual upkeep costs start. And those costs usually aren't funded well. People like new things, not spending money to repair old things.

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I think that enough of Florida is being developed if not over-developed that the State Parks do not need this kind of development.

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Exactly. It isn't like there is some kind of public need, or even a public want for this stuff being built in state parks. The reaction from the citizens of Florida has been overwhelmingly negative since these plans were revealed. They could have saved a lot of time, effort, and money by simply asking the public first if there was even any interest, and then realizing that no one likes these plans before they even put them together. It comes across as run-of-the-mill sketchy government shenanigans that will probably only serve to line certain people's pockets.