Reedy Creek had a Fatal Flaw Disney Won’t Talk About

The melodrama between The Walt Disney Company and the State of Florida’s government continues on, and neither side is backing down as the battle over the coveted Central Florida special district heads to federal court.

Read More: Bob Iger Doubles Down on DeSantis Lawsuit, “Plainly a Matter of Retaliation”

During the Q&A session of the Company’s Q2 earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger reiterated his frustrations to investors, insisting that the actions taken against them were purely out of retaliation.

“There are about two-thousand special districts in Florida,” he said. “Most are established to foster investor development where we were one of them.”

“I mentioned two thousand for the Daytona Speedway. It has one,” he added. “So do The Villages, which is a permanent retirement community, and there are countless others.”

Iger is right. There are literally thousands of special districts set up across The Sunshine State. But there is one thing that he leaves out: Out of those thousand+ special districts, there were five in 2022 that were not conformed to the ratified State Constitution. The Reedy Creek Improvement District was one of them.

According to the original dissolution legislation, called Florida Statues Section 189.0311 regarding independent special districts and their charter requirements, SB 4-C, lawmakers clearly state that:

“…any independent special district established by a special act prior to the date of ratification of the Florida Constitution on November 5, 1968, and which was not reestablished, re-ratified, or otherwise reconstituted by a special act or general law after November 5, 1968, is dissolved effective June 1, 2023.”

Click here to read it for yourself.

Reedy Creek Improvement District was founded in 1967, one year before the ratification of the Florida Constitution. And for some reason unknown to us at Disney Fanatic, Reedy Creek was one of only five special districts that fit the description to no make the necessary adjustments.

Now, the bill did allow for all five of those districts to adjust their structure and reapply, so long as they fit under the new requirements and limitations outlined by Florida Statutes Chapter 190, titled “Uniform Community Development District Act of 1980.”

Some of those requirements include the following:

• No special district should “outlive its purpose” and be allowed to go against Florida law.

  • “It is in the public interest that any independent special district created pursuant to state law not outlive its usefulness and that the operation of such a district and the exercise by the district of its powers be consistent with applicable due process, disclosure, accountability, ethics, and government-in-the-sunshine requirements which apply both to governmental entities and to their elected and appointed officials.”

• Special districts need to comply with outside law and relinquish zoning permitting powers.

  • “That the exercise by any independent district of its powers as set forth by uniform general law comply with all applicable governmental laws, rules, regulations, and policies governing planning and permitting of the development to be serviced by the district, to ensure that neither the establishment nor operation of such district is a development order under chapter 380 and that the district so established does not have any zoning or permitting powers governing development.”

• Special districts will not become a burden on the surrounding communities and counties.

  • “It is further the purpose and intent of the Legislature that a district created under this chapter not have or exercise any zoning or development permitting power, that the establishment of the independent community development district as provided in this act not be a development order within the meaning of chapter 380, and that all applicable planning and permitting laws, rules, regulations, and policies control the development of the land to be serviced by the district. It is further the purpose and intent of the Legislature that no debt or obligation of a district constitute a burden on any local general-purpose government without its consent.”

In short, Disney was taking advantage of a special privilege for over 50 years. The State Legislature was finally fixing the half-century problem by forcing The Walt Disney Company to now abide by laws of the land established long before Governor Ron DeSantis set foot in the capital. And the subsequent transformation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District has been based on the need to keep the residents of Orange County and Osceola County free from the flood of debt and taxes held within.

The legality of the change is real, but can Disney claim a violation of freedom of speech and targeted government retaliation when they had a half-century-old ticking timebomb just waiting for an opportunistic adversary to come along? We will all know soon enough.

We at Disney Fanatic will continue to update our readers on this story as more developments come to light.