It appears a board controlled by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is making moves to take back power that the Reedy Creek Improvement District signed over to Disney.
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board has published public notices that it will take up “Resolution No. 639” at a meeting on April 19th.
We obtained a copy of the document and were able to review it. It looks like the resolution is focused on emphasizing the Board of Supervisors’ “superior authority” within the District specifically as it relates to comprehensive planning, zoning, land development regulations, and a few other things.
The moves come after it was revealed that the former Reedy Creek Improvement District Board adopted a development agreement and restrictive covenants that require that most of the district’s decisions be reviewed and approved by Disney. Those agreements were passed just before the Florida State Legislature moved to rename the district’s board and limit its membership to people appointed by the Florida Governor.
After a March 29th meeting of the governor’s new board, Board Member Ron Peri shared that the agreements stripped the board of its power and “made Disney the government,” suggesting the new board should fight them.
Later in the day, Disney responded by saying the following: “All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law.”
Last week, DeSantis spoke about the controversial moves during a book-tour appearance at Hillsdale College in Michigan — saying he was looking at the legalities of the agreements, and considering raising hotel taxes and tolls for Disney World visitors.
“The media is acting like somehow they pulled one over on the state,” the potential 2024 Presidential candidate said. “Suffice it to say, the Legislature is going to void anything Disney did on the way out the door.”
The new Resolution would restrict the two cities in the district — Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake — from adopting land development regulations that conflict with those of the district. It would also prohibit the cities from considering, approving, or executing any development agreements.
If passed, the Resolution proposed would also give the Board of Supervisors some additional powers. There is a Planning Board at the moment that handles certain things, but this Resolution would basically do away with that Planning Board and give all duties of the Planning Board to the District’s new Board of Supervisors.
The Resolution would specify that when the Board of Supervisors carries out duties in acting as the new Planning Board, the Board of Supervisors would be the “final decision-making authority for the District and no further administrative appeal” would be available.
Finally, the Resolution also adjusts requirements for notices on amendments to the District’s Land Development Regulations. Specifically, any such proposed amendments would require 10 days’ notice.
And if the cities of Lake Buena Vista or Bay Lake are seeking to make amendments to land development regulations, the cities would have to give the Board of Supervisors a copy of the amendments at least 60 days in advance of the first reading and hearing on them.
The next meeting of the Board of Supervisors is set for April 19th at 9:30AM. At that point, the Board should consider this resolution and we’ll get an update as to whether it will be passed.
Stay tuned to All Ears for the latest on this continuing story.
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What do you think about the 11th-hour agreement between the Reedy Creek Improvement District board and Disney? Tell us in the comments.
DeSantis is coming across as a child having a temper tantrum. There would be no central Florida if Disney didn’t develop that land. There are a lot of tourists visiting Florida, and a lot of theme parks? Can you apply rules to one without affecting them all? ?
We don’t dare visit Disney since Desantis started harassing them. We used to go 4 times a year. Florida would not be the same without Disney and Desantis is ungrateful.
DeSantis cannot ever be president. He’s trying to steal Disney. Whatever happened to the first amendment?
So sick of DeSantis and his anti-Florida and anti-tourist bullying.
LOL, ah, DeSantis is a very popular elected official and represents the voters. As far as “anti-tourist”, is anyone cancelling their Disney vacation because of this issue? And as far as the Disney Co, WDW is their #1 money generator, most of their hard assests, the vast majority of their develop-able land, etc. They are not going to stop enhancing it, building new DVC, lands, parks, etc. In fact Iger is still moving CA office people to FL because it’s so much cheaper and business friendly (regulations and taxes). What Disney is losing is their sweetheart deal and are left with the same deal as every other business in FL, which is still a very good deal.
I love how Desantis thinks that he is winning this battle. Disney has pockets deep enough to tie up the Florida government in court on First Amendment issues for years to come. Or it might be easier just to drop a few hundred million in a super-PAC that would support Democrats in Florida as well as any Republican challengers to Desantis.
I don’t agree with the way Chepack handled his commentary on the Florida law, but Desantis’ response has made it clear that he isn’t a conservative, he’s just a bully. The Republicans used to be so much better than this.
if you have disney stock.sell it now while you can still get a profit.
Disney World is less than 5% of a Disney’s overall business. Desantis’s nonsense is not going to hurt the company’s bottom line as much as you like to think it will.
I think this is the stupidest issue ever. If anyone doesn’t see an issue with government coming in and PUNISHNG a corporation for exercising their first amendment rights…then where does it stop? If DeSantis gets away with this, who’s to say he doesn’t go after more businesses that don’t align with his facidt views? And then, maybe he’ll go after citizens. Wake up Florida! This is the start of us LOSING our freedoms.
I’m a Canadian. Isn’t this government overreach what you folks revolted over in 1776?
The question is what is the goal here? If the goal is to punish Disney, what form will that take? I think it goes without saying Disney has been incredibly successful at running theme parks and resort hotels. Florida gets a great deal of tax money from tourists. Florida can wrest control away from Disney, but if they can’t run WDW as good or better than Disney and the parks do poorly as a result, the people of Florida will suffer. And a lot of people will lose investment money.You can make Disney pay for opposing DeSantis’ policies, but if there’s collateral damage, there will be huge costs for Florida.Typical of Republicans. Their anger gets them to go too far. And if you think politicians are going to wrest control away from corporations, you are delusional.