Florida Governor Ron DeSantis steps up his battle with Disney and will direct legislators to discuss the termination of Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District

Apr 19, 2022 in "The Walt Disney Company"

Posted: Tuesday April 19, 2022 10:37am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In a press conference today, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has escalated his offensive action toward Disney and has announced plans to terminate Walt Disney World's Reedy Creek Improvement District.

DeSantis said during the press conference that the Florida state legislator will discuss this week the termination of all special districts created prior to 1968. Disney's Reedy Creek District was created in 1967 ahead of the construction of Walt Disney World.

The creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District in 1967 allowed Disney the luxury of establishing its own independent government that handles many aspects of the Walt Disney World property, including emergency services, infrastructure, and construction permitting. It remains unclear how the elimination of Reedy Creek could actually be implemented and how Disney would respond.

Speaking in The Villages retirement community, DeSantis said, "I am announcing today that we are expanding the call of what they are going to be considering this week. And so yes, they will be considering their congressional map. But they also will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968. And that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District."

This latest move follows escalating tensions between DeSantis and Disney CEO Bob Chapek regarding Disney's opposition to Florida's "Don't Say Gay Bill."

Disney has suspended all political donations in the state of Florida in response to the bill.

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lentesta32 minutes ago

AFAIK the road budget is still in place. IIRC it was a tie-in of Western Way to the east side of property. ETA: Yep. Look at Exhibit D in this doc from the CFTOD boaerd meeting on 2024-06-05.

LAKid532 hours ago

What more can be done?

Dr.GrantSeeker6 hours ago

I remember RCID approving a bunch of infrastructure work for Western Way and the BV Drive intersection right before they became CFTOD. Do we still know if these improvements are going to happen and when? @lentesta I’m tagging you because i vaguely remember you talking about this a year ago-ish, which is how I learned about it in the first place. Unless my memory is totally wrong (which it could be) so I apologize in advance if you never mentioned these improvements!

LAKid537 hours ago

Have you met OC Planning? Their middle name is urban sprawl....

LAKid537 hours ago

It is. I laugh everytime I'm GPSed through property on the way back from MCO. And I think the same on the way home from Port Canaveral. I'd rather make a larger loop around than drive Osceola Parkway to LBV Drive to Western Way to Hartzog.

lazyboy97o9 hours ago

And instead of real solutions people just double down on the causes of traffic.

castlecake2.09 hours ago

The blessing of size lead to urban sprawl on property, the very thing Walt’s EPCOT was trying to fix. One solution could be trying to implement public transit to get Cast living nearby to work, but Orlando’s transit is terrible, and the sprawl across property makes it hard to make an efficient system for moving people. Now with the sprawl surrounding the property, Disney roads are becoming the shortcuts. The isolated feel of entire resort is quickly disappearing.

LAKid5310 hours ago

State Road 535 (Avalon Road) North from the intersection at Hartzog is now wall to wall apartment complexes up to New Independence. I had to make a detour to get out of Waterleigh due to road resurfacing and the same is going south. The roads in Horizons West currently can't handle the traffic resulting from the increase in developments. Yeah, it's nice that 429 North of the toll before the Turnpike had been widened, but it's a hot mess in the AM & PM up to that spot. The amount of construction since I bought 2.5 years ago is insane. Don't know HOW they'll widen Western Way once you leave property because there's not much space to add another lane under the 429 overpass. Flamingo Crossings area is growing. And the roads can't handle the traffic.

LuvtheGoof10 hours ago

Western Way was really bad around 5:30 yesterday. And then a few idiots on the turnpike going north decided to have a 4 car pile up, blocking both lanes in the construction area, and our normal 2 - 2 1/2 hour trip took almost 4 hours last night!

LAKid5320 hours ago

My GPS sends me THROUGH property on the way back from MCO. But South on 429 to get there.

LAKid5320 hours ago

Avalon is bad in the mornings & evenings. Now imagine adding a 1400 unit housing project on Hartzog just before the curve to the intersection with Avalon. Which was just widened up to Schofield.

Brian1 day ago

It all comes down to I-4, specifically I-4 west of 535/Daryl Carter down to Hwy 27 (Davenport/Haines City). The GPS apps are essential, even for locals, if you want to avoid traffic, and they direct motorists onto, in many cases, one lane roads that were never meant to handle even a fraction of the traffic they now handle. These roads include Old Lake Wilson, Sherberth, 17/92, Poicinana Blvd, Griffen, Avalon, and of course the on property roads leading out to 429 you mentioned, Western Way and Buena Vista Drive. World Drive gets hit with this problem too, as folks try to head southbound to 192 to go to Old Lake Wilson. All of these roads are inundated with motorists who, if not for the mess that is I-4 between Disney and Hwy 27, would be on I-4, and they simply cannot handle that kind of volume. Luckily, most of the aforementioned stretch of I-4 is actively being expanded and will be done in the next few years, and hopefully with that more resilient, the pressure on these "shortcuts" will be reduced/eliminated. That said, I do think that Western Way and Buena Vista Drive out to Flamingo Crossings will have to be reconfigured/expanded regardless, as the Horizon West area is growing rapidly.

castlecake2.02 days ago

Yah it’s terrible there too, and what it looks like is happening is people are coming on to property via Osceola pkwy then cuttingg up to buena Vista to get across to western way. It’s normal now for the left turn onto BVD from world drive to back all the way up onto Osceola. Orlando has a traffic problem which is turning into a traffic problem for Disney as people cut through property to try to get around it. I think western way was approved to become three lanes each way though?