Creative Park Ideas, Plans, Visions

[jaxlongtimer]

Creative Park Ideas that make you want to absolutely barf all over Tallahassee...

https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/florida-unveils-2024-2025-great-outdoors-initiative-amid-concerns-over-environmental-impacts-state-parks/S77DMGX6MJHSFDG43BHSPSX5ZU/

Another sell out, effectively, to developer friends of the governor.  How does building a "lodge" with 350 rooms improve public access to Anastasia Island?  Between the building footprint, parking and surrounding infrastructure, how does adding a lodge help the park support more visitors than it does as an open, natural space now?  And, you can bet any lodge like that will have security limiting access to its portion of the beach to its guests only.  Such parks are set aside to protect "natural" Florida, not man-made.  Send the "additional" visitors to Typhoon Lagoon or other Disney parks if manmade environments are what they are looking for.

You only have to go to Yosemite Valley to see the limits of such "improvements" that, today, are actually going the other way, and being partially reduced. 

Many parks today are already at capacity and have too many visitors, not too few.  What the State should be doing is creating more parks if the demand is there, not burdening more the ones already overwhelmed.

[WarDamJagFan]

Creative Park Ideas that make you want to absolutely barf all over Tallahassee...

https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/florida-unveils-2024-2025-great-outdoors-initiative-amid-concerns-over-environmental-impacts-state-parks/S77DMGX6MJHSFDG43BHSPSX5ZU/

Another sell out, effectively, to developer friends of the governor.  How does building a "lodge" with 350 rooms improve public access to Anastasia Island?  Between the building footprint, parking and surrounding infrastructure, how does adding a lodge help the park support more visitors than it does as an open, natural space now?  And, you can bet any lodge like that will have security limiting access to its portion of the beach to its guests only.  Such parks are set aside to protect "natural" Florida, not man-made.  Send the "additional" visitors to Typhoon Lagoon or other Disney parks if manmade environments are what they are looking for.

You only have to go to Yosemite Valley to see the limits of such "improvements" that, today, are actually going the other way, and being partially reduced. 

Many parks today are already at capacity and have too many visitors, not too few.  What the State should be doing is creating more parks if the demand is there, not burdening more the ones already overwhelmed.

It makes my blood boil seeing this. Anastasia is near and dear to me and my family for reasons that simply don't need to be divulged in this forum. State Parks like Anastasia are meant to be preserved in their natural state as a means for us to enjoy and escape the chaos of population centers. Trying to turn every piece of natural, undeveloped land into a new neighborhood or new entertainment venue for "tourists" is gutting the very thing that makes Florida special. Absolutely none of the locals want this and it will be very telling if the State steamrolls over the demands of the citizenry and moves forward with this bs.

[acme54321]

You think the Anastasia plans are bad, they want to mow down 500 acres of Jonathan Dickinson to build three golf courses! Like there aren't enough golf courses in south Florida??? WTFFFFF.

I will say though.  It is near impossible to get a camping spot at any of our state parks anymore.  There needs to be a section of each park campground set aside for the people who actually live here vs letting them be 100% reservation based to whoever signs up first a year in advance.

[CityLife]

You think the Anastasia plans are bad, they want to mow down 500 acres of Jonathan Dickinson to build three golf courses! Like there aren't enough golf courses in south Florida??? WTFFFFF.

I will say though.  It is near impossible to get a camping spot at any of our state parks anymore.  There needs to be a section of each park campground set aside for the people who actually live here vs letting them be 100% reservation based to whoever signs up first a year in advance.

The Jonathan Dickinson plans are hilariously bad. JD is in the middle of potentially the greatest concentration of golf courses in the world, with around 100 within 20 miles. The opposition is already massive, and I don't see any way it actually happens.

You are a million percent spot on about the camping thing. If you have an annual state park pass, you should get priority reservations over out of staters. Many of them basically come and live in the campgrounds in the fall, winter, or spring.

I would like to see the state enhance the lodging options in state parks, but nothing close to a 350 room hotel.

[jaxlongtimer]

You think the Anastasia plans are bad, they want to mow down 500 acres of Jonathan Dickinson to build three golf courses! Like there aren't enough golf courses in south Florida??? WTFFFFF.

I will say though.  It is near impossible to get a camping spot at any of our state parks anymore.  There needs to be a section of each park campground set aside for the people who actually live here vs letting them be 100% reservation based to whoever signs up first a year in advance.

Aside from giving priority to Florida residents (I have heard of processes that open up reservations to a state's residents several days or weeks before opening up to everyone as one solution), if demand is that great, how about creating more parks to offer more camping opportunities, not just cannibalizing existing lands set aside for preservation.  As population grows, especially in a state like Florida, we need to invest in expanding park lands as much, or more, than we do building ever more roads for developers.  I doubt Florida parks have  done so but welcome data to prove me wrong  .

[Charles Hunter]

The opposition is already massive, and I don't see any way it actually happens.

You are a million percent spot on about the camping thing. If you have an annual state park pass, you should get priority reservations over out of staters. Many of them basically come and live in the campgrounds in the fall, winter, or spring.

I would like to see the state enhance the lodging options in state parks, but nothing close to a 350 room hotel.

1. With a Legislature full of wimps who bend the knee to Prince Ron, who is going to stop this plan?

2. One way of combating the snow-birds, and others, who move into the campgrounds is to impose, and strictly enforce, a time limit - say 30 consecutive days at any one park (not camping slot). You would have to be gone at least 30 days before your next period can start (or some mechanism to meet the goal of preventing long-term living).

[Tacachale]

There is a lot of pushback in the legislature and the cabinet about this. And the public pushback is going to be enormous, especially for the golf courses. There’s really no one pushing for this outside the FDEP, so the chance these concepts don’t move forward is pretty high.