ST. GEORGE ISLAND — The Florida Department of Environmental Protection hopes to increase attendance at Dr. Julian Bruce State Park on St. George Island by 20 percent annually.
But at a meeting on the island Tuesday night, public response to most aspects of the proposed changes was a resounding “no.”
The DEP’s Florida Parks Service is proposing the improvements as part of a 10-year update of the barrier island park’s management plan. With approval, this management plan will replace the 1997 approved plan.
Park officials say the changes are needed to keep up with demand in the region, where camping is a more common form of recreation than in other parts of the state. State Park Manager Joshua Hodson said the occupancy rate at the current 60-site campground is 85 percent.
Changes could include addition of a 30-slip boat camping area with bathhouse and pavilion, parking and a fish cleaning station near the “oyster boat” boat ramp.
The campground would be expanded by 30 sites, plus 12 additional primitive camping sites are proposed. Six cabins and a cabin support building would be constructed. The main paved road will be expanded by about five feet on each side to create bike paths along its entire length and four four-space pull-offs would be constructed along the 5-mile stretch of road between Sugar Hill and the east end of the island.
On Tuesday evening, about 60 people confronted park planning officials to discuss the proposal.
Several attendees said they could accept additional primitive camping, but reactions to most of the other proposed changes were universally negative. Proposed boat camping drew the most fire.
Director of Administrative Services Alan Pierce said the park is arguably the county’s largest tourist attraction.
“We want the park to be consistent with community planning,” he said. “The proposed mooring facility is brand new. We only heard about it from news media this week. We don’t have this kind of mooring yard in the county. It would be a huge change. We have concerns about boat traffic and interaction with the oyster industry; concerns about lack of control of recreational boaters.”
Island resident Barbara Sanders said, “We don’t have any marinas on St George Island. We don’t have anything like that.”
Lewis Scruggs, chief of the Florida Office of Park Planning, said the facility was not a marina and would not provide boat storage or fuel.
“I am sorry to use a negatively-charged word,” Sanders responded. “Were you to find out (the boat slips) are not popular, will you delete it from the plan? I vote against the marina and cabins. It’s possible to overreact to demand and lose what’s unique about the park. If you pay a lot of attention to the creatures, then I think it’s OK to refurbish.”
Commissioner Smokey Parrish said the installation of a 30 slip mooring yard potentially set a bad precedent. “We currently deny anything over 10 slips because of potential damage to the oyster bars. You might have to reclassify the water. I like to be fair and equitable. You can’t tell one he can do something and tell his neighbor he can’t.”
An audience member argued that the east bay is shallow and difficult to navigate. “It seems unwise to invite a large number of people,” he said.
The man also said the boat camping area would be unusable for much of the year because of cold weather. County planning and zoning board member John Murphy expressed concern that sewage from the boat camp would be disposed of in an existing aerobic sewage field. He argued such waste could include bilge water contaminated with petroleum.
Six cabins proposed for the current camping area were also unpopular. Commenters asked if the cabins would be in competition with the many rental properties on the island.
Scruggs said staying in a park cabin is not comparable to staying in a rental house, closely surrounded by other residences. He said cabin camping is attractive to older visitors who might not be able to cope with tent camping but wish to share the outdoor experience with grandchildren.
“Camping has seen a real surge of popularity,” Scruggs said, “Our cabins stay fully booked most of the time.”
Both Audubon Florida and Defenders of Wildlife had representatives at the meeting.
Julie Wraithmell, Audubon Florida’s director of wildlife conservation, arrived with a vanload of concerned residents from Tallahassee.
“These kinds of habitats found in the park are growing rare,” she said. “The issue of disturbance is not addressed in the plan and that’s a major shortfall. The use of this area should be held to very high standards.
“This is the first stop of migratory birds after their long journey across the Gulf, the first place they have to rest. They can’t do it on the west end of the island with all the development. They can’t do it in Destin,” said Wraithmell. “There is not enough existing staff for this park and additional staffing is not addressed in the plan. Trying to meet demand for use may cause us to lose sight of why we saved it to begin with.”
Audubon’s Adrienne Ruhl said that “what’s approved in this plan, for better or worse, determines what can be built regardless of funding. (Do we want) the park to look like this or is it going to look like what we have now, which is something unique?”
Want To Comment?
- The public has until Dec. 2 to comment on the proposed changes to Julian Bruce State Park. Email questions or comments to David.Copps@dep.state.fl.us