Opponents oppose plans to build a lodge and other recreation areas at Anastasia State Park, part of a nationwide effort to attract more people to state parks.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection this week announced the Great Outdoors initiative, which includes a 350-room lodge, pickleball courts and a disc golf course on the barrier island near St. Augustine.

The state says construction at the state park would get more people outside and provide overnight accommodations beyond camping.

Conservation groups and others who enjoy the park are not convinced. They will have an opportunity to voice their displeasure at a meeting next week.

Jen Lomberk, executive director of Matanzas Riverkeeper, says the park already offers numerous activities, from beach to bird watching to kayaking, and those activities leave a much smaller environmental footprint than required by the state.

“There’s a big difference between active and passive recreation. Passive recreation is things like hiking and bird watching. They don’t require as much infrastructure. They don’t require as much disruption to the ecosystem,” Lomberk says. Jacksonville today“Active recreation, on the other hand – for example pickleball courts and golf courses – is a completely different type of recreation and requires much more intensive interventions in the landscape.

The Matanzas Riverkeeper, like other riverkeepers in the state, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting local waterways through education and advocacy.

A 350-room lodge could mean up to 1,000 or more additional people staying in the ecologically sensitive park at any one time. Lomberk says she wants Anastasia State Park to maintain its status as one of the few places on the island where “wildlife can escape constant human interaction.”

It is also a place where people can escape from constant human interaction.

James Benveniste took his boogie board to the park’s beach Thursday morning, as he has done every week for 20 years.

Benveniste lives on Fleming Island, but he makes the hour-long trip from Clay County to Anastasia State Park because he says the atmosphere there is unbeatable.

Benveniste is usually at the beach around sunrise, so he’s not sure if the increased traffic at the park would affect him as much as others, but he says it would definitely make him think twice.

“If I had family in town and the decision to go to the beach came up, I probably wouldn’t come here from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” Benveniste says. “It’s the crowds. The lack of that is why I come here.”

Benveniste had not heard of the proposed changes and Lomberk fears that this was intentional.

She says the Department of Environmental Protection typically issues notices about new plans and projects weeks in advance, and with more transparency than she said was the case with the Great Outdoors Initiative.

Lomberk is frustrated that people were given only a week’s notice about a public meeting that will take place during work hours.

The Anastasia State Park Project meeting begins at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Character Counts Conference Center, Building C on the campus of First Coast Technical College, 2980 Collins Ave. in St. Augustine.

At the same time, other meetings are taking place across the state. Anastasia State Park is one of nine parks in Florida where the state is proposing changes. Others include Hillsborough River State Park in Tampa and Camp Helen State Park in Panama City Beach.

Citizens will be given three minutes to share their thoughts with representatives from the State Department of Environmental Protection.