Florida state parks bill stalls as lawmakers focus on budget, other battles
Environmental groups sent people to stand with a leading GOP lawmaker when she introduced a plan to protect Florida's award-winning state parks from the Gov. Ron DeSantis administration's Great Outdoors Initiative.
DeSantis pulled the outdoor initiative when the public and lawmakers protested plans to build golf and pickleball courses and overnight luxury lodges at places like Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, Anastasia State Park in St. Johns County and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Walton County, along with a flying disc course at the Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park in Tallahassee.
Now advocates' calls for tougher language and specific prohibitions may have stalled the bill. The proposal has entered into a legislative state of suspended animation, neither moving nor dead, just sitting and waiting to be heard.
The bill (SB 80) by Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, known as the State Parks Preservation Act, was intended to ensure such development never sees the light of day.
But her bill has gone into hibernation, like Florida's famous black bears who inhabit many state parks, after the Senate's Environment and Natural Resources Committee cleared it on a unanimous vote Feb. 11.
Why? Nobody knows. Or if they do, they aren't talking. A request for comment is pending with Harrell.
'I haven't heard anything definitive about it being dead. From what I understand, there's still work being done on the bill,' said Chadwick Leonard of 1000 Friends of Florida, a smart growth advocacy group.
But lawmakers are now in the second half of the annual 60-day legislative session, and it's unclear whether Harrell's bill can regain the momentum needed to clear both chambers and be sent to the governor. Some committees have stopped meeting, and lawmakers' attention has mostly turned to crafting the state budget for 2025-26.
There's a $4.4 billion dollar difference between the House and Senate budgets to close, for instance, and a $5 billion tax-cut dispute simmering between the House and DeSantis to resolve. That means there may not be enough room on the calendar to get the parks bill over the finish line, as lawmakers are wont to say.
The House companion (HB 209) is stuck in the State Affairs committee, which has no more meetings scheduled. And the Senate proposal still has two more committees to clear: An appropriations subcommittee, which has yet to schedule a meeting since March 26, and the Fiscal Committee.
At the same time, environmental groups have put up a website urging lawmakers to 'Strengthen SB 80' because 'it does not go far enough.' They had backed the bill while calling for clearer language and specific prohibitions on state park land.
The bill now says any construction activity or land disturbance must to the 'maximum extent practicable,' and avoid disturbing 'habitats and natural and historical resources.'
Kim Dinkins, also with 1000 Friends, said without a definition of what "maximum extent practicable" means, the bill has a loophole big enough to fit a golf course into a state park: 'You could have a golf course if the applicant says they've minimized the impacts. In fact, even a DEP analysis last summer was that the golf courses and the newly proposed uses would minimize impacts."
Dinkins, the group's policy and planning director, added: 'We would really like to see something move forward rather than nothing.'
The legislative process often involves rounds of "three-dimensional negotiations," according to Aubrey Jewett, who has taught political science for 30 years at the University of Central Florida. There are talks between the House and Senate, layered atop talks between the Legislature and the governor, added to a round of negotiations between constituents and lawmakers.
'Friction between the executive and legislature can slow things down, but when there's friction between the chambers, and throw (in) executive friction, that can really slow things down,' Jewett said.
In addition, Nova Southeastern University political scientist Charles Zelden notes that only a small percentage of bills ever clear both chambers – usually 10% to 15% in the Florida Legislature. This year more than 1,300 bills were filed.
Zelden said the parks bill could simply be caught in the usual session gamesmanship, with lawmakers holding onto bills as bargaining chips. 'Everything comes out in a big rush at the end, once the budget is figured out,' he said.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida state parks bill in limbo as legislative session winds down
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