Camping in the works for Deer Lake SP?

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....

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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.

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! :bang:

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The hell it is! NOTHING is inevitable.

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.

Even the biggest freight train has brakes. There is absolutely no reason why Deer Lake State Park (or any park) needs to be developed or privatized.

If they want camping there, why can't it be run by the park service? Topsail and Grayton both seem to do well with running it themselves.

Even the biggest freight train has brakes. There is absolutely no reason why Deer Lake State Park (or any park) needs to be developed or privatized.

On this one, you are exactly right. I have not heard one planning official say anything about changing the land use code regarding state parks (there is no zoning in Walton County, dammit). In fact, though it may be so, I know of no land use code pertaining to state parks. Let's be a little real, here. While there will be progress and development in our area, land code usage and zoning is not meant to destroy our recreational and leisure area in the furtherment of development. In addition, they are STATE PARKS and would not be subject to the land use code of Walton County without significant changes.

I am completely against the idea of developing Deer Lake any further than it is now; however, St. Joe peninsula state park (tip of Cape San Blas) has wonderful camping facilities run by the park system. The campground spaces (tent and RV) and cottages stay booked. I have to believe they at least break even. But I also think they have substantially more land (bay side and gulf side) with which to work. I'm out there several times a year and can say that the state did a fine job of preserving natural surroundings and dunes. I don't know how Deer Lake could accommodate camping and preserve the surroundings.

While there may be no zoning restrictions on land use in state parks, there are deed restrictions in many cases attached to them- lots of park land was donated or purchased at a discount with part of that low aquisition cost coming with restrictions stating that if the land was no longer used for that specific purpose, then it would revert to the original owners or their heirs. (This is actually turning into a big deal in Okie-Dokie right now over land donated for a courthouse annex, and since the county has plans to no longer use the land for county services as the terms of the land donation state, the heirs of the donors want it back to thetune of a couple million dollars of prime Eglin Parkway frontage.)

I love that idea - though my guess is the heirs then can't afford the taxes so the companies that want the land can still get it.

Was Deer Lake donated?

Was Deer Lake donated?

No. It was acquired by the State in a legal settlement, a complicated case having to do with St Joe. It's in the public records somewhere. But that is not to say that the State, especially with this governor, might not decide to sell it.