Which "leak" are you referring to? Disney is aware that people dig around for permits. If they wanted to keep something from being "leaked" as you say, they'd have instructed people to hold off on the permit dump. It's not some big secret. This thread's trending towards conspiracy and innuendo is just astounding. I guess everything needs to have a big story attached. Then again, none of this was a "story" until you know who got involved, now it's a circus of who said what when and how and who screwed up by filing a permit and then having an unrelated announcement for an resort expansion and a new tower- BOTH OF WHICH were known about well before the "gondola bombshell"...
Originally, it was stated that the park was to be cut off from the other parks/resorts for thematic purposes. It's also why the parking lot is clear cut as opposed to the other lots which have rows of trees to break up the endless rows of cars. I know that all sounds far fetched and outlandish, but it's true. The parking lot is supposed to look as desolate as possible in order to highlight what a blight it is on the otherwise natural/beautiful landscape (especially the Oasis). The parks location at the bottom edge of the resort also sort of makes transport there more difficult than the other parks. Monorail was never going to happen, and a boat would take forever even if a canal system existed (current ones around that area aren't suitable).