30-04-2025
Florida Senate approves bill protecting state parks from development, but it's not a done deal yet
Dunedin City Commissioner Jeff Gow (left) during a protest at Honeymoon Island in Dunedin on August 27, 2025. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
A measure that would prevent development in state parks was passed unanimously in the Florida Senate on Wednesday, 37-0. However, the measure now must go back to the House for one more vote before it can arrive on Gov. DeSantis' desk to be signed into law.
The State Park Preservation Act (HB 209) was filed last year by Southeast Republican Sen. Gayle Harrell following a statewide public backlash to the Department of Environmental Protection's 'Great Outdoor Initiative.'
That plan called for building lodges, golf courses, pickleball courts, and disc golf courses in nine state parks.
'This is democracy at work,' Harrell said before the Senate passed the measure.
'This was really a grassroots endeavor that came up and the participation of so many people across the aisle, every socioeconomic group, every group that you could talk to, this was the issue of the summer. I can tell you that all the demonstrations out in the hot August sun in Florida to get out there and do that to let people know that our parks are the core of who we are.'
The Florida House unanimously passed its version of the bill last week, but its Senate companion (SB 80) had not been scheduled for a vote until Wednesday, drawing concern from environmentalists that the measure wouldn't be addressed before the legislative session was scheduled to end later this week.
(The session is expected to go beyond this week, however, with the two chambers at odds over the state budget).
Those concerns increased earlier this week when Miami-Dade Republican Sen. Alexis Calatayud added an amendment that the Sierra Club claimed in a press release was 'an obvious attempt to run out the clock.'
However, Harrell gladly accepted Calatayud's amendment on Wednesday, which included language prohibiting construction of specified sporting facilities and public lodging in state parks — listing golf courses, tennis courts, pickleball courts, ball fields, or other sporting facilities that 'may not be constructed within the boundaries of state parks.'
But her amendment also says that the state can continue to maintain or repair of 'any such sporting facilities, or other facilities, existing with a state park.'
The bill requires the DEP to report to the governor and Legislature regarding the status and operation of state parks. Additionally, the bill revises notice requirements for public meetings.
It requires individual land management plans with parcels within a state park to be developed with the input of an advisory committee. It also says that the Division of State Lands shall make available to the public an electronic copy of each land management plan at least 30 days before the public hearing required for parcels that exceed 160 acres in size and for parcels located within a state park.
Panhandle Republican Sen. Don Gaetz asked Harrell whether she could assure him that there is no 'weasel word' in the bill that would 'allow any kind of commercialization of our state parks now or in the future, or in any land that would be required contiguous to our state parks?'
'There's no wiggle room for golf courses or things of that sort for that to be built within our existing state parks,' Harrell replied.
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