Central Florida Tourism Oversight District appointed by Ron DeSantis formally declares Disney's agreements with Reedy Creek to be null and void

Apr 26, 2023 in "Reedy Creek Improvement District"

Forum Forums Tweet Share Tweet Share

Posted: Wednesday April 26, 2023 10:30am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board of Supervisors met today and declared 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 met today to nullify Disney and RCID's February 8 agreements

Earlier this week, the board released pages of legislative findings regarding the February 8 agreements that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District say makes them null and void.

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 gave Disney significant control of the RCID land and prevented the new board from making any changes to the agreement.

Chair of the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board Ron Garcia said during the meeting, "Disney picked the fight with his board. We were not looking for a fight." He continued, "Factual and legally, what they created is an absolute legal mess, and it will not work."

Today's vote to approve the findings now directs the litigation counsel to have Disney's agreements with Reedy Creek declared void and unenforceable and stricken from the public records of Orange and Osceola Counties.

Disney has not yet publically commented on these recent developments, and it remains unclear if it will challenge today's decision.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

mkt3 hours ago

I already said aligned, don’t let me pull out any more MBA buzzwords

JoeCamel21 hours ago

Waaa? No flywheels?

mkt23 hours ago

I'd take it as an indication of infrastructure improvements aligned to potential new construction. Similar to the road construction and electrical infrastructure put in place across town before Epic Universe was announced.

AJFireman1 day ago

It was sent to the Palm Springs Air Museum for an interior restoration. There were many articles after D23 when that happened. Here is the article posted to the Company website and yes its open to the public. Also the PS Air Museum just made a post about it 6 days ago on their social media accounts. https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-announces-restoration-and-recreation-of-the-interior-of-walt-disneys-plane-to-its-1960s-design/ Here are some pics of the interior stripped. Couldnt find anything about how far along they are with the restoration. https://palmspringsairmuseum.org/restorations/

JKick951 day ago

Right. That makes sense. I was just curious to whether or not some comments should be read into as a positive sign of good things to come. For example yesterday RCES commented “property expansions are coming” and therefore their organization is concerned and partnering with outside agencies. The board and/or district administrator (I forgot specifically what was said) kind of said something along the same lines.

mkt1 day ago

They likely know at a high level what they are as well as projections of the impacts to the district in order to allow them to prepare. But I doubt that they’re sharing WDI concept art, simulations, moodboards, renderings, etc with the board that not long ago was actively working against Disney.

Monorail_Red_771 day ago

When Walt's Plane was moved from WDW over to CA for the last D23 event. I wondered what would happen to it after the exterior refurb, etc. Well a few days ago I came across a vlogger doing a video on a random Air Museum and surprisingly Walt's Plane is now on loan to the Palm Springs Air Museum. on the Palm Springs Air Museum site it is listed simply as Grumman G-159 Gulfstream. But, the video shows the plane on exhibit outside and then shows some of the same interior items from D23 also on display.

Rosso111 day ago

I would imagine they need to be very much in the loop with Disney’s plans. Most of the infrastructure for major projects begins first with Reedy Creek. For example if the rumors are true much of the reason for all of the work on Floridian Way over the last few years is because Disney plans to develop more land north of the Grand Floridian. Reddy Creek needs to know these things in order to allocate time and funds for these projects.

JKick952 days ago

How much about Disneys plans do they know? Should we take their comments as a positive of things to come?

Stripes2 days ago

There was a lot of focus in the meeting on Disney’s plans to significantly increase investment and that these increased investments are going to require significant infrastructure projects to meet the needs of these Disney investments. The district administrator stressed that the district needs to prepare. RCES (a Disney subsidiary) also mentioned that they have been making changes to staffing structure and bulking up to prepare for Disney’s “upcoming property expansions.”

Batman'sParents2 days ago

There is a budget workshop on August 24, 2024.

Batman'sParents2 days ago

Today is the first time the Board has gone over the proposed 2025 Millage Rates. There is a lot of talk regarding investment in the district by taxpayers like Disney, Disney Springs operators, and hotel operators and the conversations they are having with them. Given the ongoing and future investments needed in the district, in terms of setting the operating millage rate, there appears to be some support for option 1 and option 2: Option 1: Set the Proposed Millage Rate to 14.40 mills. (Debt Service 4.17 mills/Operating 10.23 mills) This raises the Debt Service as needed and raises the Operating millage to fund a 5% increase in expenditures over the Fiscal Year 2023 millage rate. Option 2: Set Proposed Millage Rate to 13.90 mills. (Debt Service 4.17 mills/Operating 9.73 mills) This raises the Debt Service rate as needed and allocates the remaining millage to Operating. This returns the millage rate to the same rate as Fiscal Year 2023. The members of the Board were stressing this is not the final set rate and it can be lower. There appears to be more of a consensus that they want a lower rate, but want all available options. There was a slight hesitation between the members of the Board in choosing what options to set, notably, Board Members Barakat and Aungst were in more in favour of option 1, and board members Peri, Ziegler, and Mateer were more in favour of option 2. After taking a vote to adopt option 1 failed by a vote of two to three, they adopted option 2. BOS Packet: https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/BOS-Meeting-7-24-24-Draft-Agenda-Packet-PUBLIC.pdf The proposed rates and options are on the second to last page.

StripesJun 18, 2024

What? The new development agreement is based on the existing 2020 Comprehensive plan. There’s just a blurb in there that the district and Disney will amend the agreement in order to give Disney even more development rights once the new comprehensive plan is effective.

mktJun 18, 2024

They are not. And the politization of day to day is affecting morale across the other civil servants. I personally know of two ex-RCID/current-CFTOD employees that are taking an early retirement and starting the same job with a different private or public sector enterprise in the area.