More than a decade ago, Florida lawmakers floated one of the worst ideas in this state’s long history of bad ideas. They wanted to grant one politically connected development company the exclusive rights to build golf courses and hotels in Florida’s award-winning park system.

This idea was ludicrous for a slew of reasons — mainly because conservation land is supposed to be preserved, not paved with cart paths and doused with pesticides.

The state invested billions of tax dollars in natural lands to protect water and wildlife — not as site prep for a resort.

Also, this state is littered with shuttered golf courses. Courses have been on the decline for two decades. So the idea of government helping one company start something new while existing courses struggle to keep their clubhouses open is antithetical to free-market principles. And just bad economics.

Not surprisingly, Floridians protested en masse. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, though, is that they were joined by one of the biggest names in golf — Arnold Palmer.

I reached out to Palmer one morning back in 2011 to ask what he thought about building golf courses in state parks, and his company quickly responded to say it was a lousy idea. They said there were plenty of better places to build golf courses and the proposed no-bid deal was supremely suspect.

I publicly shared Palmer’s statement on a Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, the plan was dead. Lawmakers said Floridians had spoken “loud and clear.”

In Florida, however, bad ideas rarely die. They’re just repackaged. And now Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ironically named Department of Environmental Protection has resurrected the plan — and put this bad idea on steroids.

In addition to multiple golf courses, the DeSantis administration also wants to erect 350-room hotels on land that taxpayers spent billions to preserve. To make that idea more palatable, they’re calling these proposed hotels “lodges.”

Maybe that sounds rustic and quaint — until you see what a 300-plus-room hotel actually looks like. (For reference, drive by the 11-story Embassy Suites down in Lake Buena Vista. It’s quite a … lodge.)

“It’s just outrageous,” said Julie Wraithmell, the executive director of Audubon Florida, “The state park system has always worked to provide nature-based recreation that’s compatible with our natural resources. This tips the balance of that horribly, toward really impactful recreation.”

Even GOP legislators quickly panned the governor’s idea. Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said the state’s vision and investment in these protected lands “did not contemplate the addition of golf courses and hotels, which in my view are not in-line with the peaceful and quiet enjoyment of nature.”

The public seems to vociferously agree. Down in South Florida, where the state has proposed building three new golf courses inside Jonathan Dickinson State Park, WPTV cited an avalanche of objections. “It’s been a long time since our newsroom has received so many emails and concerns over one topic in our area,” the station reported.

One reason Dickinson is so vaunted is that the state spent seven decades and boatloads of tax dollars on what the state itself describes as “the largest amount of protected scrub-jay habitat in Southeast Florida.”

“Golf courses are not an endangered species in Florida,” Wraithmell said, “but scrub-jays are.”

She’s right. The state lists Florida scrub-jays as threatened while there are about a dozen golf courses right around Dickinson — courses that were built on private land with private financing and which would now be forced to compete with a state-subsidized one. You also have to wonder how the lucky developers will be chosen to build their hotels and golf courses on land that taxpayers acquired and tended.

Last time, the idea was to give an exclusive, no-bid deal to Jack Nicklaus’ development company, one of several reasons Arnie objected.

And “no-bid” is DeSantis’ middle name. OK, so it’s actually Dion. But you’ve seen the headlines: “DeSantis donor got $50 million in emergency pandemic work,” “At Disney district, another no-bid contract pays political pal $495 an hour” and “Gov. DeSantis hides no-bid COVID contracts from public in defiance of state law.”

Politically connected cronies are surely salivating over the chance to plow bulldozers into a scrub-jay habitat.

Less enthralled: The hoteliers who already invested their own money on land they bought themselves — just outside places like St. Augustine’s Anastasia State Park where Team DeSantis envisions one of those 350-room “lodges.” The state hasn’t even concocted convincing arguments for why any of this new development is needed, even while trying to ram this proposal through. (One of DeSantis’ own former parks directors told the Tampa Bay Times the fast-tracked scheme appeared “planned in secret,” skirting both legal and departmental requirements. And GOP Congressman Brian Mast just called the process “bullsh*t.”)

The original notice for the governor’s “Great Outdoors Initiative” suggested the state just wanted to get people into the parks and make them more “visitor friendly.”

The suggestion that these parks are unused or uninviting without golf course, hotels and pickleball complexes is unmitigated horse hockey. Florida’s parks system is one of the most popular and award-winning in the nation. It attracted 30 million visitors last year — more people than this state’s entire population.

“These parks are slammed,” Wraithmell said. “You try getting into Ichetucknee Springs after 10 a.m. in the summer.”

Listen, I’m not adverse to low-impact recreational opportunities, especially in places where there’s already infrastructure to support it. But let’s be clear. We aren’t talking about some city’s downtown pool and park complex. The state’s parks and preserves involve thousands of acres of scrub, marsh, woods and trails specifically designed to protect water, land and wildlife.

None of this should be rushed through. None of it should involve insider, no-bid deals.

And no golf courses should be bulldozed through large swaths of land that taxpayers specifically attained for conservation purposes.

Arnold Palmer knew it was a bad idea 13 years ago. And with the increased pressures Florida is facing for clean land and water, it’s an even worse one today.

You can let the governor know what you think of this idea by visiting www.flgov.com/email-the-governor

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com