Fast tracked proposal to build 300 plus lodges in some Florida State Parks, hearings 8/27

[Suz333]

If you live in Florida or enjoy Florida state parks, you might want to know about this.

Florida is proposing construction in several state parks, with very little advance notice. The press release on 8/19 makes everything sound delightful (of course). But it’s being handled in a very underhanded way. The public engagement is 8 in person meetings to all happen simultaneously on 8/27. They will be recorded presentations and zero questions will be answered, with a push for things to start happening in September.

The parks themselves have not been included and there some possible environmental concerns. I saw a video about this on YouTube channel RV Miles. Here’s a list of impacted parks:

 

[fla4fun]

I don’t see the park near me on that list. Our park has a campground and a separate area with maybe a dozen small cabins, but there aren’t any real amenities, like a pool.

 

[bama_ed]

A "lodge" to me is like (a) hotel building(s) with multiple rooms per building.

We have some "lodges" in our Alabama state park system but there are only 6 or 7 parks with hotel rooms (out of 20 or so state parks) and of course the lodges tend to be at the bigger, more busy, state parks.

Since the OP is tuned into the topic, 300 "lodges" seems to outnumber the state parks in FL. Can you post a link of the specific parks with a "lodge" or more details? Can it be multiple buildings (aka "lodges") per state park? FL has some popular state parks that could probably handle hotel rooms but not all of the parks would be candidates for same.

Bama Ed

PS - and I've camped at several FL state parks a few of which are quite close to "civilization", amenities, and utilities and also have space/room to add buildings. If there is development 100 feet outside of a state park, I don't see the "environmental concerns" of development inside 100 feet of a state park (or anywhere else within reasonable reach). Many parks have campsites (at the low impact end per "room") and cabins (at the high impact end per "room"). Isn't there a reasonable need for a middle type of accommodations that would be priced for Florida citizens between the two ends?

 

[fla4fun]

A "lodge" to me is like (a) hotel building(s) with multiple rooms per building.

We have some "lodges" in our Alabama state park system but there are only 6 or 7 parks with hotel rooms (out of 20 or so state parks) and of course the lodges tend to be at the bigger, more busy, state parks.

Since the OP is tuned into the topic, 300 "lodges" seems to outnumber the state parks in FL. Can you post a link of the specific parks with a "lodge" or more details? Can it be multiple buildings (aka "lodges") per state park? FL has some popular state parks that could probably handle hotel rooms but not all of the parks would be candidates for same.

Bama Ed

PS - and I've camped at several FL state parks a few of which are quite close to "civilization", amenities, and utilities and also have space/room to add buildings. If there is development 100 feet outside of a state park, I don't see the "environmental concerns" of development inside 100 feet of a state park (or anywhere else within reasonable reach). Many parks have campsites (at the low impact end per "room") and cabins (at the high impact end per "room"). Isn't there a reasonable need for a middle type of accommodations that would be priced for Florida citizens between the two ends?

I did some reading, and the more I read, the angrier I became. There are nine parks to be affected at this time. The lodges will basically be 350 room hotels. They also want to add golf courses, pickleball, and other recreation. I am not against recreation, per se, but golf courses and pickleball courts are a dime a dozen in Florida. Golf courses in particular take a lot of land and a lot of water to keep those fairways green. One article said they were planning to take 1000 acres from just one park for two 18 hole courses and one 9 hole course when there are 50 courses already operating in the vicinity. That’s not adding a little recreation. That is full on development on land that was set aside as natural habitat and protected from developers. Even though my nearest park is not on the current list, what’s to say it won’t be on a list soon? They might as well be selling the park land to developers. The end result will be the same. I am not happy with the idea or the way they went about trying to push it through.

If you Google Florida Great Outdoors Initiative you can get more details. The meetings scheduled for August 27th have been pushed back to early September.

 

[Suz333]

Partial quote [A "lodge" to me is like (a) hotel building(s) with multiple rooms per building.

We have some "lodges" in our Alabama state park system but there are only 6 or 7 parks with hotel rooms (out of 20 or so state parks) and of course the lodges tend to be at the bigger, more busy, state parks.

Since the OP is tuned into the topic, 300 "lodges" seems to outnumber the state parks in FL. Can you post a link of the specific parks with a "lodge" or more details? Can it be multiple buildings (aka "lodges") per state park? FL has some popular state parks that could probably handle hotel rooms but not all of the parks would be candidates for same.

Bama Ed]

I don’t know how to fix a thread title, willing to correct if you tell me how. That title should have been 300 room lodges, as in lodges with 300 rooms. So, way fewer than 300 lodges, but the ones that will be built will be much larger than normal lodges in natural settings.

I no longer live in Florida but I grew up there and my family is from there. The amount of deterioration I’ve already seen personally during my lifetime is tragic, but construction in these set aside places should be something considered very carefully, not rushed through with barely any public discussion.

The proposed format for the meetings was really obnoxious. At work we have town hall meetings like this, where they take up 58 minutes out of a 1 hour “meeting”. I always call those “information dumps”. There’s really no time to engage during those meetings. But at least they’re held with time to dial in, and not announced with insufficient notice.

Government does lots of good things. But when they try to do things in a hurry and under the radar it’s generally a good idea to check it out.