Camping in the works for Deer Lake SP?

[beachmouse]

They're on the list of possibilities. Any regular users of the park have thoughts on the proposal? Gotta say I'm not thrilled with how the whole thing is being pushed through with what seems like an extreme attempt to curtail any sort of discussion, public notice, and public debate on the proposal. I remember the use meetings for Topsail SP and the adjoining campground and it was a far, far longer process to get the existing use plan for it.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/article1177183.ece

DEP pitched its idea — and the list of 56 parks where campgrounds could be built — at a June 10 meeting of the Acquisition and Restoration Council, an advisory committee made up of state officials and private citizens that reviews state land matters.

To ARC member Vickie Larson, the whole proposal seemed hastily thrown together and was offered as an all-or-nothing vote rather than breaking the list down to vote on each park. She voted against it.

Now DEP is pushing ahead with rapidly scheduled public hearings not just for Honeymoon Island but also for three other parks that are tops on its list: De Leon Springs State Park, Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park and Fanning Springs State Park. The hearings on Honeymoon Island, Wakulla Springs and DeLeon Springs are July 5, while Fanning Springs is on July 6.

 

[Kurt]

Camping is a possibility and in the long-range plans of many parks. But Privatization?

In a departure from the way Florida created its award-winning park system, the state's plan calls for letting private companies bid on designing, building and operating the campgrounds on taxpayer-owned land, said DEP's Florida Park Service director Donald Forgioni....

...
The idea of privatizing state and national parks is fairly new, but it's been endorsed by such pundits as Glenn Beck, who last year said, "I don't know why this doesn't make sense to more people."


Honeymoon Island's lack of campsites is not uncommon. Forgioni said about two-thirds of Florida's 160 state parks have no camping.


The 53 state parks that do allow camping offer 3,501 family campsites, and they are usually booked solid, Forgioni said. More than 2 million people camped in state parks last year, generating more than $15.5 million for the DEP — but the state wants to boost those revenues even higher.


"We anticipate it working like this: The private sector designs, builds and operates the campground, including collecting the overnight fees," he said. "Then we get a percentage of their revenue."



He said he had no estimate of how much that might yield but DEP would likely use it to make the state park system more self-sufficient....


...Both Larson and Audubon's Wraithmell said this push is part of an overall initiative of Gov. Rick Scott's administration regarding the use of state lands, which Wraithmell described as "treating our resources as commodities" regardless of whether it's good for the parks or the public.

To say they have no estimate of how much money it would make is complete BS. They must be dumber than they think we are.

 

[AlphaCrab]

What a terrible idea for Deer Lake State Park. The beauty of that particular park is that what most people appreciate is the actual, sheer lack of "human" interference in it--it is so pristine, quiet! There are more animal footprints than human ones. Visitors there can see and feel actual serenity, and have a sense of what the area was probably like hundreds of years ago.

Thumbs down on privatization!

 

[Em]

Oh joy! We could definitely use some more campgrounds around here, but privatizing the state parks is so not cool.

 

[beachFool]

Privitizing Deer Lake has nothing to do with making the Park System more self-sufficient.

 

[scooterbug44]

How 'bout we leave the state parks alone until we've successfully fixed the bigger stuff - or replaced the people who want to do so.

 

[Andy A]

Though I am sure it could be done, I am hard put to see exactly where the campground would be put without destroying the ambiance and beauty of the park. The whole idea sounds pretty poorly thought out to me.

 

[AndrewG]

I would hate to see this happen. Privatizing almost always generate revenue where a gov't entity flounders in debt. That's the logic. Development is coming whether private or gov't to Deer Lake though.

 

[scooterbug44]

The hell it is! NOTHING is inevitable.

 

[AndrewG]

That's not what zoning & planning folks say. Look at how much our area has changed in the last 20 years. It's a coming.