Answering Your Questions about the Strange Disney/DeSantis Feud

You’re confused. I get it.

Nothing makes sense about the state of Florida picking a fight with its largest revenue generator, The Walt Disney Company.

The state and the corporation should be the best of friends. Instead, Disney’s CEO is calling Florida’s governor “anti-business” and “anti-Florida.”

I’ve seen less conflict during entire seasons of the Real Housewives of…whichever one had Kim Richards. (I still love you for Escape to Witch Mountain, Ms. Richards!)

While I can make no promises that I can clear up any of this nonsense for you, I’ve compiled a list of the seven most frequently asked questions regarding Reedy Creek.

Here are the answers to your Reedy Creek questions.

What Is Reedy Creek?

The Reedy Creek Improvement District was a Walt Disney initiative from the 1960s he didn’t live long enough to witness bear fruit.

Disney bristled at the governance restrictions he faced in Anaheim, California.

In his opinion, Anaheim politicians should have given Disney everything it wanted as a sign of gratitude for making the city relevant to tourists.

When Walt Disney embarked on the Florida Project, self-governance proved vital to his goals. Florida’s elected officials happily gave Disney everything he wanted.

One such initiative was the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which empowered Disney with de facto self-governance.

Florida officials didn’t create anything new for Disney. Such special tax districts were already a century old before Disney arrived. So, it was a perfect fit.

For more than 50 years, Disney has handled wastewater services, generated its own power, and performed fire protection/medical services via Reedy Creek.

Why Did Florida End Reedy Creek?

Okay, that question isn’t accurate in and of itself. The Reedy Creek district remains. Florida merely rethemed it with a new name.

Originally, Florida’s government voted to dissolve Reedy Creek. Then, the legislators learned that they had just accidentally billed taxpayers $1 billion.

Sheepishly, Florida tried again a year later, voting to change Reedy Creek into the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD).

This new iteration includes a board that is openly hostile to The Walt Disney Company.

Many of them are close allies of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has built his Presidential hopes around an anti-Disney platform.

Did Ron DeSantis Really Get Married at Disney?

Yes.

Many sources have verified this fact, which DeSantis confirms in his own biography.

Ostensibly, the governor’s family loved Walt Disney World enough to marry at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. He only decided he hated Disney in 2022.

That’s one of the many curiosities in this entire kerfuffle.

What Does King Charles III Have to Do with Anything?

You may have spent a recent weekend watching the inauguration of King Charles III, a dude who waited 73 years to become England’s ruling monarch.

What does the new king have to do with Disney? In reality, the answer is nothing.

However, in a very specific legal way, the health of the king’s royal descendants is of the utmost concern to Walt Disney World officials.

Disney’s attorneys slipped in some clever paperwork during the final meeting of the old Reedy Creek board.

These perfectly legal documents provided Disney with wide-ranging powers that effectively strengthened the company’s governance powers in Reedy Creek.

Florida officials had written laws to do the opposite, but Disney outflanked them. 

Disney’s attorneys included a clause that gave the company control over the Reedy Creek land as long as there’s a living descendant of King Charles III.

This seems like a good time to mention that the king’s youngest heir, Prince Louis, just turned five last month.

So, yeah, if a court rules in Disney’s favor, it’ll control Reedy Creek for a looooong time to come.

Will Disney Lose Reedy Creek?

The questions I’m picking here are the most frequently asked ones on the web, not necessarily the ones I can answer definitively.

That’s one of the most frustrating parts of this entire story. Nobody can say with absolute certainty what will happen next.

What we can do is backtrack and discuss what has already happened.

In a way, Disney has already lost Reedy Creek. At its core, this district provided Disney officials with a way to control civic governance.

Walt Disney World is legitimately a large city in all but name. Through Reedy Creek, Disney acted as a kind of town council. And it also picked the mayor.

Florida has revoked those abilities through legislation, at least in theory.

The reason why the answer isn’t finite is that it hs already become a legal matter.

Disney has sued the governor and all members of the new CFTOD, along with a few other parties.

Meanwhile, the CFTOD has sued back, arguing that everything it did was legal.

I spoke with several attorneys and a sitting judge after Disney sued. To a person, they vastly favored Disney’s legal argument.

Afterward, several other publications posted similar versions of the same idea. They, too, asked legal experts for opinions.

Once again, those attorneys suggested that Disney holds a strong claim.

Still, any attorney will tell you that nothing is ever guaranteed in a court of law.

Should Disney win in court, it will exit this legal battle with more control over Reedy Creek than it has previously held.

Conversely, if Florida wins, Reedy Creek, as we’ve known it, is lost forever.

Is Reedy Creek a Good Place to Live?

I love these questions so much. They’re perfectly understandable but so unhelpful.

The answer to this particular one is, “You’ll never know.”

As of the 2020 census, exactly 53 people lived on the land we call Reedy Creek.

According to that census, 24 people live in Lake Buena Vista, while 29 reside in Bay Lake.

If you want to be technical, the answer is just 24. Lake Buena Vista was originally named…Reedy Creek.

This minuscule population isn’t accidental, either. All the people who live on these lands possess full voting rights for Reedy Creek developments.

Well, they did. It’s legally blurry whether that same statement applies in the wake of recent events.

In fact, some attorneys believe that the current residents are now being taxed without representation under the new board. So, that might be a thing, too.

Everything about this situation is messy and legal quicksand.

Still, the point is that Disney didn’t want a lot of unknown quantities during voting.

So, the company carefully cultivated a group of Reedy Creek residents who would vote as Disney desired.

Yes, that’s problematic as well. In fact, the mere existence of Reedy Creek has been problematic to many over the years.

Ironically, the people who would have defended it 20 years ago now hate it, while the ones who were against it then are now ardent supporters.

We’re through the looking glass here.

Could Florida Really Put a Prison Next to Walt Disney World?

First, you shouldn’t worry about this possibility in the least. It was an outlandish claim that, like the dissolution of Reedy Creek, seems unplanned.

Theoretically, Florida officials could do this after nullifying some Reedy Creek agreements Disney made during the old board’s final meeting.

Realistically, that’d be like using a gold mine as a meat locker. You’re missing the point by taking that approach.

If anything, Florida could work land deals with interested parties who seek property close to Walt Disney World.

Even then, you should remember two things. First, Disney has sued Florida.

If a federal judge rules in Disney’s favor at any point, Florida is stuck.

Second, Walt Disney World covers more than 40,000 acres of land. The theme parks cover only a small fraction of this real estate.

Anything “close to Disney” still isn’t close to the Disney stuff that matters.

That’s true because Walt Disney learned his lesson with Anaheim. He resented that he only purchased 160 acres there.

Even now, Walt Disney World is approximately a factor of 60 larger than Disneyland Resort!

Putting anything near the parks is impossible for any entity other than Disney.

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