But Disney’s plan was different.
Let’s consult a map. Here’s Germany. Morocco. And Fantasyland. But beyond Walt Disney World’s borders you find a larger boundary: the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District that’s been at the center of a feud between Disney and Governor Ron DeSantis. “There’s a new sheriff in town.” But this district started way before the DeSantis-Disney war. It explains something about the history of Florida… and the lost city of EPCOT. “It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed.” And most importantly, why Disney World is here… and isn’t moving anytime soon.
This isn’t Disney World, but Disneyland. And the key thing is not the park but the surroundings. Downtown Anaheim. A 40 minute drive from Los Angeles. Disneyland opened in 1955. In an internal publication, Disney showed its belief that the site provided sufficient land for present and future growth. Period photos show the area didn’t start as densely developed as it is today, but this 1965 map shows how quickly things changed. Everything from schools to shopping centers limited Disneyland’s control over its future.
Walt Disney needed more… and he wanted to get more from a new park. He wanted his new park to be on the East Coast. He needed a lot of land, so dense urban areas were out. He didn’t want cold. That narrowed things down to Florida. He also didn’t want to compete with the ocean so he skipped coastal locations. When flying over Orlando, he saw I-4, I-95, and the Sunshine State Parkway. That clinched it.
Locals started to notice big land deals being made by mystery companies. Soon, Floridians began to suspect their mystery industry was Disney. The size was immense. Here’s the size of Disneyland if it were in Florida. And here is the land they bought for Disney World as it is today, even after some land was sold off.
Shortly after the land story broke Disney held a press conference with Governor Hayden Burns and brother Roy Disney to discuss the plans. “It will bring a new world of entertainment… pleasure, and economic development to the state of Florida.” “Walt Disney.” Let’s break down this next Walt Disney quote. After you’ve done something you see with the experience and all of that, what you might do if you were starting from scratch. Disney wanted to get right what he missed in Anaheim. “Taking a look at the land this morning I say we are starting from scratch.” The land needed a lot of work, drainage work, development: everything. Just look at this 1962 map of the area. There were some orange groves on the land but this symbol means swamp. The area is called the Reedy Creek Swamp.
“But we have many things in mind that would make this unique and different from Disneyland.” But Disney also had greater ambitions for the land that he would only reveal later on. “Here in Florida we have something special we’ve never enjoyed at Disney.” “There’s enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans we could possibly imagine.” To persuade Florida’s government to support the project… Disney released concept art like this… that showed way more than a theme park. Like a giant industrial complex. And a constantly evolving city of 30,000 people. EPCOT: An Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
“All these varied activities around the Disney World… will be tied together by a high speed, rapid transit system running almost the full length of the property.” “It will never cease to be a living blueprint of the future… where people actually live a life they can’t find anywhere else in the world.”
But Disney didn’t want to wait for permits for every sewer drain and light post in his city of tomorrow. To have complete dominion over the land he’d bought… he needed political control, not just a title. He needed a kingdom. Special districts are common. Tens of thousands of them exist across the United States. For example, the famous retirement community, The Villages just north of Disney uses them. But Disney’s plan was different. Disney wanted a special version of a voting system where they would be the sole “residents” and could vote themselves in and make their own rules. To make this happen, they had multiple points of leverage, such as the promise of economic development and the threat of building a ski complex in northern California. As a result, in May 1967, the Reedy Creek Improvement District was chartered as an entity that could regulate across counties, like its own government. This allowed Disney to build an underground tunnel system, a monorail, and a lake for the parking lot.
Despite Walt Disney’s death in 1966, the company continued to use its powers. In the 1990s, they “imagineered” the small town of Celebration, Florida, but it was de-annexed from Reedy Creek, meaning no voting for the board.
Recently, Disney’s CEO called Florida’s Governor DeSantis to protest the “Don’t Say Gay” law. In response, the Governor promised that the “corporate kingdom finally comes to an end”. This feud has highlighted the unique power Disney holds in the area. At the Second Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call, it was noted that the Florida special districts were continuing to operate as usual, but that the state would struggle to actually dissolve the district due to the charter giving it the power to finance projects and activities through bonds. This would lead to hundreds of millions in bond debt being passed on to taxpayers in Orange and Osceola Counties. Despite this, Disney has already made noise about a $17 billion Disney World expansion, so the district’s name, board composition, and process may slightly change, but Germany and Morocco will likely remain the same.