Disney Looks to Halt Plan to Build New Park in Florida
By Movieguide® Contributor
Disney released an internal memo last Thursday, halting its previous plans to build a new Disney Parks campus in Lake Nona, Florida.
“Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus,” a part of the memo said.
While the memo provides little specificity, the change in plans is likely fueled by Disney’s ongoing feud with Florida’s government. Tensions rose in March of last year when Disney opposed Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which sex-and-gender education for younger children. Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis’s response was to strip Disney of the special privileges they had enjoyed for over 50 years, removing the company’s control over infrastructure, services, and taxation within Walt Disney World.
Disney, however, has not gone down without a fight, suing Florida for their actions, claiming that the retaliation for opposing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill is a violation of the First Amendment.
The cancelation of the Lake Nona Disney Park campus is seemingly the next step in Disney’s retaliation against Florida. The company’s memo explains that they “have plans to invest $17 billion and create 13,000 jobs over the next ten years.” While those investments were likely planned to go into the Lake Nona campus, Disney’s message is that they now want to bring the money and jobs somewhere else.
Disney has yet to reveal their new plan, however, it is likely to include new developments somewhere outside of Florida.
Movieguide® previously reported on Disney’s backlash from the “Don’t Say Gay” bill opposition:
On Monday, Walt Disney Co. lost its special corporate privilege that had provided it nearly full governing rights over the Reedy Creek Improvement District where Walt Disney World is located.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cut Disney’s high level of control following a dispute last year over Disney’s response to a Florida parent’s rights law, nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The law limits sex-and-gender education to younger children.
Disney’s control over the district extends back to Disney World’s conception 55 years ago and granted the company power to tax, spend, plan, zone and generally govern the acreage surrounding the Florida theme park, even allowing the right to generate nuclear power, if necessary.
Disney was given these privileges to allow Walt Disney to create a truly functional Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). Then-governor Haydon Burns called this idea “the greatest single announcement in the history of the state,” as he endowed Disney with these special privileges.
Fifty-five years later, the vision has not panned out as Disney or Burns hoped, with Reedy Creek being more of a corporate dictatorship than a utopian democracy of the future. The one-time plans for mass residential development never materialized, with only small pockets of land given to full-time residents.
While the EPCOT vision has long been abandoned, Florida has had no reason to repossess the privileges it had conceded to Disney until the company tried to force its opinion about the parenting bill onto representatives in the state, abusing its place of privilege and overstepping its jurisdiction.
As of Monday, Disney has officially lost their special powers in Reedy Creek, losing control over tax and improvement issues at Walt Disney World.
The new law renames the Reedy Creek district the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and will be run by board members nominated by the governor and approved by the state senate. The board members will have control over the district’s infrastructure and services, as well as taxing authority.
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