Reedy Creek Once Ruled the Kingdom, Then It All Went Away

After former Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, known by its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had very few options to retaliate. After all, Walt Disney World was one of the state’s largest employers and taxpayers. So, what could be done?

Governor Desantis could organize a boycott of Disney World, but those rarely work. He could pressure Orange County officials to do something about Disney, but they wouldn’t risk angering the company that put them on the map. But there was one thing that could be done on a state level to punish Disney.

Related: ‘Unqualified and Incompetent!’ Disney District Employees Quit En Masse After DeSantis Board Takeover

The state had granted Disney World a special district when it was founded in the 1960s. So, Florida Gov Ron DeSantis set about stripping Disney World of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. And so, with the help of the Florida Legislature, DeSantis could remove Reedy Creek and replace it with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

But what the governor had anticipated was the size and scope of Reedy Creek and the difficulty that came along with governing the District that oversees the Walt Disney World Resort. But what exactly is the Reedy Creek Improvement District, and what is its role in supervising the Happiest Place on Earth? Let’s take a look.

Reedy Creek History

It’s hard to fully imagine what Walt Disney first saw when he came to Central Florida looking for land for his new theme park. The Central Florida that we know today is vastly different, thanks in part to Walt’s vision for Disney World. As Walt Disney started purchasing more and more land, he realized that the area’s infrastructure was insufficient to support the kind of theme park he envisioned. Walt would eventually buy 27,520 acres, or 43 square miles, of land in Orange and Osceola Counties, but there was still the problem of infrastructure to address.

Related: Walt Disney, The Sierra Club, and the Supreme Court: How Walt Disney Started the Modern Environmental Movement

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the Walt Disney Co. worked with the Florida Legislature to create a special taxing district. The District would have the same authority as a county government, which included collecting taxes. And since Disney World was the only landowner in the District at the time, Disney would be paying for all of the needed infrastructure to create Disney World.

The District was mutually beneficial to the state and Disney. The state, which did not have the tourism revenue it currently does, would not have to pay for roads, sewers, or capital improvements, and Disney would not have to answer to any higher authority when making a decision. The governing boards of Orange County and Osceola County were on Board, too. It meant that building this massive park would not cost them anything, but they could collect taxes from the millions of tourists who visited.

So, when the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the Walt Disney Co. was in charge of establishing all the roads and infrastructure for the Park. Disney would pay taxes to the Reedy Creek Improvement District, both counties and the state. So, the state and counties received the benefits of Disney World without any of the headaches associated with running such a vast property.

Related: The Enormous Scale of Walt Disney World Will Blow Your Mind

The Walt Disney Company established two towns in the District: Bay Lake, which is where the Disney Parks are located, and Lake Buena Vista, which includes Disney Springs, several Disney Hotels, and a handful of Disney “Good Neighbor” hotels. The World Disney World Resort would eventually grow to include EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom, as well as two water parks, a sports complex, 4,000 hotel rooms, and hundreds of restaurants.

But that’s just what guests see in Disney World. There are also 175 miles of roads, 67 miles of waterways, an environmental science lab, an electric power-generating and distribution facility, a natural gas distribution system, water and wastewater collection and treatment facilities, and a solid waste and recyclables collection and transfer system. Disney created an entire world out of Central Florida orange groves, but what did they get out of it?

Convenience. Or, to be more specific, the ability to do whatever they wanted without jumping through the hoops that state and local officials usually require. Any time the Walt Disney World Resort wanted to build anything, they would do the usual environmental impact studies and such, but when it came time for building permits, Disney would go to the Reedy Creek Improvement District to get those permits. It simply made life easier for them.

Related: New Report Accuses Disney of Buying Influence with Reedy Creek Board

Now, this is where the sticky part comes in. Critics will argue that the Walt Disney Company had unchecked power and abused that power. Disney World paid 86 percent of the taxes in the District and hand-picked all of the Reedy Creek Board members. And a recent report from the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said that Disney bought the loyalty of those Board members with gifts like season passes and discounts on food, merchandise, and hotel rooms. But more on that later. For now, let’s look at precisely what Reedy Creek actually did.

What Reedy Creek Did

You have to think of the Reedy Creek Improvement District the way you would think of a municipality and the Board that oversaw it, just like a town council. When Reedy Creek governed the District, it did everything. That is, it did everything a municipality would do. It was in charge of power, water and wastewater, roads, emergency medical services, drainage, flood control, solid waste and recycling, and building codes. It even had its own firefighters and police forces.

The critical thing to remember is that taxpayers outside the District, those living in Orange County and Osceola County, did not have to pay for these services in Reedy Creek. The Reedy Creek taxpayers paid for all of it. There are residents in the District who also contributed their tax dollars to the effort as well. As of the 2020 census, Bay Lake had a population of 29, while the population of Lake Buena Vista was 24.

Taking care of the District was a vast undertaking. Millions of people visit the Walt Disney World Resort every year, and most of what the Reedy Creek Improvement District did was never seen by the average visitor to the parks. For example, have you ever noticed that there are never any mosquitos in Disney World? Reedy Creek ensured the mosquitos were never a problem, which is difficult, especially in Florida.

And then there’s the trash. Disney World visitors produce 441 tons of waste every day. It was the District’s job to recycle and remove all of that trash without the guests ever noticing that it was there. It was Walt Disney’s dream for guests never to see garbage, and they maintained that dream.

The Board was made up of five members on rotating four-year terms. Each one of the Board members was an employee of the Walt Disney World Resort and owned a five-acre plot of undeveloped land on the property.

So, for 56 years, the Reedy Creek Improvement District ruled over Walt Disney World, taking care of the entire property without putting the tax burden on the residents of Orange and Osceola Counties. So, what happened?

The New Disney Board

With the arrival of the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board, appointed entirely by Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, came sweeping changes to the District, and not all of them were good. There has been massive staff turnover in the new District since the new Board took over in February. Some 44 of the 370 employees have left, taking more than 400 years of service with them. The District has also set about eliminating all DEI programs and race-based hiring practices that the former Board promoted. 

Besides a Board of DeSantis allies, the District has also opened its coffers to outside entities friendly to the Florida governor. Glen Gilzean, a former member of the State Ethics Commission, was chosen as the District’s administrator. Gilzean will receive $400,000 a year for his work, a massive raise over the former administrator. The District also put out no-bid contracts with a legal and public relations firm with close ties to Governor DeSanits.

Related: DeSantis Allie Gets A Huge No-Bid Contract From His Disney District Board

And this doesn’t even get into the legal issues with the Board and Board members. Disney and the CFTOD are currently involved in separate lawsuits in State Court. The Board is suing Disney to make any deals the company had with the former Board null and void. Disney is suing the CFTOD, claiming it violated the Constitution’s Contracts Clause. This case will undoubtedly end up in the Supreme Court, but that will take decades and millions of dollars.

But in the meantime, the current Board continues to flounder running a Distrct the size of Reedy Creek. In what was once Disney’s Kingdom paradise has now become a mess of legal wrangling and good money down the drain. Will Disney ever get its District back? That seems unlikely. Even with a new governor coming into power in 2027, the Disney fight will continue unless both sides can somehow find some common ground. But that seems unlikely.

So, the Walt Disney Company continues to fight and hopes that its Central Florida special District will one day be theirs again.

This post is originally appeared on Disney Fanatic.