The Washington State Parks Commission voted 4-3 Thursday to allow Navy SEALS to use 16 or so state parks for special operations training.

The Navy had asked for permission to do the training at 28 state parks in Western Washington, along the Pacific Coast and across Puget Sound.

The Navy has been using state parkland for military training for its SEALS (Sea, Air, and Land special operation teams) the past five years under a right-of-entry permit that was approved in 2015.

The request for new permits prompted considerable public outcry, however, and parks commissioners who voted against allowing the Navy's use of state parks noted the overwhelming opposition to the proposal.

Commissioner Sophia Danenberg said that while she has a family with strong military ties — her father was in the Army, and she was born while he was stationed in Japan and lived her earlier years on a military installation overseas — many people she had spoken to were shocked by the proposal.

The impacts of allowing the training were too great, she said.

"This will ... harm the public's experience in the parks," Danenberg said.

"I do believe the Navy has other options," she added.

Commissioner Ken Bounds said military training wasn't an appropriate use of state parks. He also said the Navy could find other areas on the West Coast to conduct its special operations training.

Organizations often turn to public parkland for their own needs, he said, for utility easements, homeless encampments, and other non-recreational uses.

"We really have to hold the line," Bounds said.

Commissioner Mark Brown said the Navy's use of state parkland would only be allowed on approximately 6 percent of the developed park property owned by Washington State Parks, or about 8,500 acres out of 140,000 acres of land.

The decision was the toughest one he's had since he has been on the commission, Brown added.

But he noted the detailed analysis done by state parks staff on the permit applications, and said the footprint of where the Navy could train was greatly reduced.

It was also limited by further restrictions added by the commission, which included limiting the Navy's use of parkland for training to non-daytime hours. Brown said that would further reduce the chances of park visitors coming into contact with military training activities.

Brown also pointed out that nine of the parks identified for use by the Navy were former military installations, and that three or four others had history of military use.

"We're talking about pre-Civil War forts. We're talking about the Triangle of Fire up in Puget Sound," Brown said, referring to the system of fortifications set up on the Olympic Peninsula and Whidbey Island that protect Admiralty Inlet.

Others noted that the military has been using Washington State Parks for 30 years, with no reports of negative interactions between park users and the military.

A long list of conditions were added to the Navy's use of state parkland.

Real weapons cannot be used during training, but replica weapons would be allowed.

No training activity can start without a two-week notification to a park area manager, who is allowed to redirect or prohibit the proposed training for any reason.

Surveillance of members of the public was also prohibited, and 500 buffers were imposed to keep the military from 500 to 1,000 feet way from camp areas and overnight accommodations.

The Navy is also required to report any training that has been held, with follow-up site visits by parks employees to make sure park properties have not been damaged.

The training was allowed on a 4-3 vote after nearly two hours of review and discussion.

Voting "yes" were Commissioner Cindy Whaley, of Spokane; Commissioner Michael Latimer, of Yakima; Commissioner Brown, of Lacey; and Commissioner Steve Milner, of Chelan.

Voting against were Commissioner Bounds, of Seattle; Commissioner Danenberg, of Seattle; and Commissioner Diana Perez, of Vancouver.