The Disney Reedy Creek and Governor Ron DeSantis battle feels like it’s been going on for a long time, but things are amping up.
On April 17th, DeSantis held a press conference about the District and the agreement that caused the Governor to threaten legal action against Disney. The press conference covered many things and outlined DeSantis’ plan of attack moving forward (get a full in-depth look at the press conference here). Now, we’ve got another update on the future of this situation.
First, we have to step back to March 2023 and talk about a Florida bill. Senate Bill 1604: Land Use and Development Regulations was filed in the Florida Senate in March and, for reference, House Bill 439: Land Use and Development Regulations is the related bill in the Florida House of Representatives.
This bill was put on the Committee’s agenda for the Rules Committee on April 14th and is intended to revise the planning periods included in a comprehensive plan, require local governments to evaluate and update comprehensive plans to reflect changes in location conditions, require local governments to determine in plan amendments are necessary, among other things. The bill is now set to be addressed with the Committee at 8:30AM on April 19th.
However, an amendment has been proposed to the bill following DeSantis’ plan of attack revealed in the press conference on April 17th.
Now, Senator Blaise Ingoglia who spoke at the press conference introduced two amendments to that bill filed by Florida last month, as mentioned above. In the press conference, he said it was “unconscionable that one corporation would hold that much power” when talking about Disney. “You are not going to win this fight, this Governor will,” he continued.
Let’s take a closer look at those amendments filed by Ingoglia.
Amendment 1 — 603230 was filed on April 18th and it would make a new addition to one part of Florida statutes on the review of development agreements.
What does this mean? Well, the amendment would prevent independent special districts (like the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, formerly known as Reedy Creek) from complying with any development agreement if that agreement was entered within 3 months before the effective date of a law that changes how the special district selects its governing body.
This amendment also notes that the new governing body of the special district will review the development agreements within 4 months of taking office. Then they will vote on if they will readopt the agreement or not. If this amendment is passed, it would apply to any development agreement that is in effect or signed after the date of the new section. It would, however, expire on July 1st, 2028 unless the Florida Legislature reenacts the amendment.
This would impact Disney due to the Developer’s Agreement passed by the District’s old board. It was approved on February 8th, 2023, falling within that 3-month window of the law changing how the District’s board of supervisors was selected.
This means that the Developer’s Agreement from the old board would be put on pause and the new DeSantis’ appointed board would be “precluded from complying” with its terms. Essentially, the new board could review it and then decide if they would like to move forward with the agreement or not. DeSantis has suggested that this Developer’s Agreement will be found invalid at the meeting on April 19th, so this could lead to the end of that Developer’s Agreement from the old board.
Another amendment was introduced by Ingoglia, but this amendment was unrelated to the developer’s agreements. It instead had to deal with permits in residential communities. Read all about the bill here.
This comes after Disney recently entered into some agreements with the old Board of Supervisors of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. These gave Disney a large amount of control within the District even though DeSantis had appointed a new board. This new Board later discovered these agreements and DeSantis threatened to take legal action against Disney to combat those agreements. This was then followed by that recent press conference with DeSantis and his team.
Stay tuned to AllEars for more information on the battle between Disney and DeSantis.
A State Prison Next to Disney World? Gov. DeSantis Amps Up His Threats
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Isn’t what DeSantis doing a violation of Disney’s 1st amendment rights? This is blatant retaliation for them exercising that right!
I also wonder if Disney can choose not to be in that Special Tax District, which would force the state to fork out the money for the past bonds and for the fire department, etc. that is currently paid for by Disney? There MUST be some way to foil DeSantis’ plans and have Mickey and the gang come out of this victorious!
Wow how is it they r just attacking disney and not universal studios yes they r smaller but they too own suit a bit of large property and have their own police I think desantisis is abusing his power to control them just because they won’t comply to this don’t say gay bill non sense he’s becoming a dictator in Florida to were businesses r just going to close and leave Florida and hurt the tourism down there he needs to stop acting like a dictator and trying to control everyone who don’t like what he does aka disney and colleges and focus on real problems
Authoritarian politicians who react to those who disagree with there actions by attacking and using their office to do so. Should not be voted for . Because they damage Democracy!
Problem with that amendment is its obviously unconstitutional- it violates Article 1 Section 10 of the US Constitution.
Ron deFascist will have to try try (and fail) again…
Why DeSantis is picking this fight is beyond me. Disney will still be there long after DeSantis is gone. What is the upside of fighting with the states biggest taxpayer and employer? So far, he’s shown that he’s vain and petty. Not a good showing for his national campaign.
It’s because they r standing up to desantis and his don’t say gay bill witch they have every right to this joke of a governor is trying to control every business who goes against him and stands up to him look what he did to new college he shut them down and made them close he’s the worst governor ever all he is a pathetic governor who wants to be a dictator but he’s actually hurting floria and tourism
Governments generally love big companies. Disney is THE largest employer in the state. Disney is THE largest taxpayer in Central Florida and one of the the largest in the state. It’s a shame that an extremist governor is trying to not only take them over, but destroy them. Wasn’t his type of people all for regulation-free/big business/free market type of interactions? A governor wanting to take over and run a private corporation sounds more like the folks over in Cuba, Russia, or China. It’s completely the opposite of free market.
I don’t see this ending well for this governor.
What’s important about these Amendments is that they’re showing that DeSantis and the new Board are not being unreasonable. If Disney wants to build a fifth park, etc, that should be fine…they just have to propose it to the new board, instead of trying to pre-opprove it through the back door.
You don’t think that violating Article 1 of the Constitution is unreasonable?
Desantis is a little bully
My money is still on the mouse. I bet Disney will still be around long after DeSantis is a footnote in the history books….
DeSantis, is evil, there is no Freedom of Speech in Florida unless you agree with his unreasonable Maga politics. DeSantis is a loser, and Florida needs to be Freed from DeSantis. Disney has done nothing but good for Florida’s economy. They have a right to voice their Freedom of Speech. DeSantis is a big baby in a suit and tie. Totally vindictive Mad Man.
The Governor stumbled into a mousetrap and can’t get out!
The Governor is obsessed. Fort Lauderdale is a disaster area. He has not visited. So many homes, businesses, govt bldgs condemned & deemed uninhabitable, but he’s planning a prison next to Disney & fighting like a brat with alternate facts.
To think this moron will eventually make his intentions known that he will be running for president!!! Anyone else is better than him than to be suppressed under a totalitarian “DIC(K) tatorship” under him… Only good thing is “Floridians” won’t vote him back to office… He is already running our state education with banning numerous important subject matters like “Black History”… If we don’t learn from our own history, we are doomed to repeat our mistakes, namely “HIM”!!!
No matter what you think about political parties and their voting his short-sighted decisions have wiped out any hope of Disney fans voting for him. These decisions will also take a lot of other votes away from him as it shows how juvenile he is and you cannot run the government when you are incapable of knowing when you are beat. I seriously doubt a retroactive law is legal and if they were we would all be living in fear not knowing what law might be enacted after the fact. Think of something as simple as a speeding ticket for 12MPH which is normally just a standard fine, however the legislature could decide to retroactively make it reckless drive and loss of license for 6 months. So you go from $150 fine to close to $1,000 fine. This is lower than some of the shenanigans Trump was involved in and he most certainly would never go after individual businesses.