DeSantis appointed board outlines its reasons for declaring Disney's last Development Agreement with Reedy Creek null and void

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board of Supervisors will meet on Wednesday to declare the February 8, 2023, Development Agreement and Declaration of Restrictive Covenants entered into by the Reedy Creek Improvement District and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts void and unenforceable.

The Ron DeSantis appointed board will meet on Wednesday April 26 to move to nullify Disney and RCID's February 8 agreements

Ahead of the meeting, the board has released pages of legislative findings regarding the February 8 agreements that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District will use to vote to nullify them.

Signed into effect on February 8, just as the Florida House passed the legislation to take control of Reedy Creek Improvement District, the new Developer Agreement gives Disney significant control of the RCID landing and prevents the new board making any changes to the agreement.

As previously mentioned by the board's lawyers at the last public meeting, much of the findings relate to Reedy Creek posting notices of the new Developer Agreement, including their timings and reaching all interested parties.

An example refers to Reedy Creek posting notices in the Orlando Sentinel.

Prior to the January 25 and February 8 Board meetings, the District published notices of intent to consider a development agreement in the Orlando Sentinel. The notices were published on January 18 and 27, respectively. The Orlando Sentinel is a newspaper of general circulation and readership in both Orange and Osceola Counties. Such notices published in the newspaper did not fully inform the public or other property owners of the purposes or contents of the development agreement and how other property owners and the taxpayers of the District were affected by such proposed agreement. 

The document goes on to say that "The benefits of the development agreement are entirely one-sided," and that, "The District receives nothing in return. The only theoretical benefit to the District in the text of the development agreement is that, when Disney obligates the District to construct public facilities that require land that Disney owns, Disney will not 'request payment for the land in excess of fair market value.'"

The final page of the legislative findings, point 92, is "Neither the development agreement nor the restrictive covenants are in the best interest of the District or the taxpayers or public, and the Board has no desire to readopt or ratify such instruments."

You can read the full text here, beginning on Page 8.

On Wednesday, the board will vote to approve the findings and will direct the litigation counsel to have Disney's agreements with Reedy Creek declared void and unenforceable and have them stricken from the public records of Orange and Osceola Counties.

Disney is yet to comment publically on the recent developments.