News Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

[TP2000]

Which reasons are gone and no longer exist?

What new condition has changed?

From the AP article I quoted above...

"The company had told the state it planned to build a futuristic city that would include a transit system and urban planning innovations, so the company needed autonomy in building and deciding how to use the land. The futuristic city never materialized and instead morphed into a second theme park that opened in 1982."

The plans of EPCOT '66 morphed into a regular theme park by '82.

There is no jetport. No permanent housing. No atomic power plant. No light industrial factories or manufacturing centers. There is no "community of tomorrow" designing and testing new urban planning concepts for residents and American Free Enterprise.

All of the stuff RCID was designed to support and nurture never got built, and will never be built. It's just a theme park and hotel complex now.

 

[Lilofan]

If there is ONE thing disney knows well, its suing a tax collector.

Disney owns Rick Singh

 

[flynnibus]

As for Florida, I found this last paragraph in an otherwise slanted AP article released today to have a refreshingly good point about RCID...

And you should find it a depressing abridged version of why RCID existing and stayed in place for decades.

Because RCID wasn't just about EPCOT city, but about developing the property in a way that wasn't suitable for the counties in the 60s and 70s.

 

[flynnibus]

It's a very valid point, one that seems to have been lost in many discussions, about why the RCID was created in the first place and why it was given the unusual autonomy that it was in 1966.

I found it to be a good point that seems to have been lost lately: The reasons why RCID was created in 1966 no longer exist, and never will exist.

No, it was a point covered numerous times in this thread... and a point covered by multiple authors, books, and state reviews.

 

[mmascari]

Florida doesn't even come close to this level of state oversight at their WDW parks. Not even close.

FL could have done all that.

Nothing in RCID prevented that.
Nothing in the RCID change will create that.

Even if a new RCID change created that type of regulation, it would only apply within the district and not to all the other operators in the state.

The state could have passed new regulation for all those things that applies to every operator everywhere in the state.

 

[flynnibus]

The state of California has much, much stricter oversight and legislative control over Disneyland than Florida has now with WDW, even with throwing the RCID into the history books.

There is no state oversight of Disney's rides in Florida like there is in California. There are no CalOSHA state inspections twice per year (one announced and planned, one unanounced and random) of the rides at WDW, for example.

If Disneyland Resort can operate in California with a higher number of rides than the WDW Resort has, then certainly WDW can continue to operate with the less intrusive state oversight of their daily operation that Florida has.

Oh, it's like that entire eastern gateway and DtD fiasco never even happened.... nor the standoff on ticket taxes. Because that situation has been wonderful compared to the alternatives.

Florida could have added a greater regulation of amusements in the state at anytime regardless of RCID. That example is meaningless to the RCID discussion.

 

[flynnibus]

All of the stuff RCID was designed to support and nurture never got built, and will never be built. It's just a theme park and hotel complex now.

Uhh no.

All that water management and land development on the property?
All that utility and infrastructure build out that the entire property relies on today
All those services such as EMS that everyone on property relies on today...

All that was why RCID was created - and is still relevant today.

 

[Stripes]

They can’t. The flow of power has changed. The cities no longer delegate power the the district, they are now subservient to it.

Do you recall where in the bill I can find this?

 

[TP2000]

Oh, it's like that entire eastern gateway and DtD fiasco never even happened.... nor the standoff on ticket taxes. Because that situation has been wonderful compared to the alternatives.

Florida could have added a greater regulation of amusements in the state at anytime regardless of RCID. That example is meaningless to the RCID discussion.

The conversation has drifted into "Disney might close WDW and move it out of Florida!" nonsense. Or even a hint of that level of nonsense.

It's a non-issue. The WDW property is one of the least regulated theme park operations that Disney has worldwide. If they can operate Disneyland in California in the 21st century with CalOSHA, they can certainly operate WDW without the RCID.

Sorry if that point was lost. This thread is long and moving fast, so it can be hard to keep up for those of us who just dropped in after seeing a few headlines today about WDW/RCID/DeSantis.

 

[ParentsOf4]

From the AP article I quoted above...

"The company had told the state it planned to build a futuristic city that would include a transit system and urban planning innovations, so the company needed autonomy in building and deciding how to use the land. The futuristic city never materialized and instead morphed into a second theme park that opened in 1982."

The plans of EPCOT '66 morphed into a regular theme park by '82.

There is no jetport. No permanent housing. No atomic power plant. No light industrial factories or manufacturing centers. There is no "community of tomorrow" designing and testing new urban planning concepts for residents and American Free Enterprise.

All of the stuff RCID was designed to support and nurture never got built, and will never be built. It's just a theme park and hotel complex now.

Yes but RCID also worked well for what WDW morphed into. RCID benefited Disney, local, and state governments.

There still is no good reason to change RCID.

 

[Stripes]

There is a legal response to this situation if things go off the rails. Even though I think this is a really dumb idea (and illegal), I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be a problem for Disney. I can understand why Disney would like to see how this goes before committing to a fight.

Again, we’ll have to wait and see.

 

[LittleBuford]

It's a very valid point, one that seems to have been lost in many discussions, about why the RCID was created in the first place and why it was given the unusual autonomy that it was in 1966.

I found it to be a good point that seems to have been lost lately: The reasons why RCID was created in 1966 no longer exist, and never will exist.

Two things:

1. The district hasn't been dissolved. It's still there, but now under the control of the governor's appointees.

2. Let me restate what I said in my original reply: DeSantis's reasons for taking over the district have nothing to do with the point you highlighted.

 

[Disstevefan1]

There are 2 villages, Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, per google the combined population of less that 100 people. Also, per research, all the main wage earners in these households work for Disney. The new legislation states that if you or a relative work for Disney you cannot be on the board. I think my head hurts as this just does not make any sense.

The situation both before and after the dissolution of RCID is/was unusual.

We know the 2 villages, Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista were/are not real towns/villages/cities. Disney put people there in manufactured homes, residents were handpicked by Disney and these folks were in Disney's back pocket.

Folks will argue the technicalities, but in reality RCID = WDW. I had family members who worked for RCID and they had ALL of the perks WDW cast members had, main gate passes, extra passes, really good discounts, and even a sizeable discount on DVC points.

As we see the new special district is also strange in a different way, intentionally governed by non WDW, non-theme park folks. I feel this was done to punish TWDC.

What will this new special district mean for WDW? Only time will tell, I guess.

I wonder if the folks running the new special district will get perks from WDW? Under the table perhaps?

 

[mmascari]

All of the stuff RCID was designed to support and nurture never got built, and will never be built. It's just a theme park and hotel complex now.

That's a rather superficial description based on 2 sentences from an AP story instead of the entire RCID act.

And since it's superficial, it doesn't answer the question about what things are gone now and no longer exist. As there are tons of things that RCID does that allow the counties to not worry about providing public services instead. Saving the counties considerable costs. Those conditions existed before and still exist now.

 

[TP2000]

Yes but RCID also worked well for what WDW morphed into. RCID benefited Disney, local, and state governments.

There still is no good reason to change RCID.

I can understand that point, to an extent. But as a Californian, I often marvel at how unregulated the WDW property was and continues to be from the state level.

But the point is that WDW will continue on without the RCID. And barring a major political shift in Tallahassee that would take at least a decade to play out at this point, Florida will probably never regulate the WDW property as much as California regulates Disneyland.

The RCID is dead, like it or not

But WDW will continue to exist and operate, with much less government regulation and oversight than Disneyland has 3,000 miles to the west.

 

[mmascari]

The WDW property is one of the least regulated theme park operations that Disney has worldwide. If they can operate Disneyland in California in the 21st century with CalOSHA, they can certainly operate WDW without the RCID.

As RCID has no impact at all on if the state of FL decides to regulate theme parks more or less, it's not really related at all.

 

[lazyboy97o]

From my point of view? To provide more oversight compared to what is in place now...

What needed more oversight? How is that accomplished?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Yes but RCID also worked well for what WDW morphed into. RCID benefited Disney, local, and state governments.

There still is no good reason to change RCID.

This is the sad thing, I think we all agree the original purpose of RCiD changed, I think we’d all even agree the state had the right to change it given the purpose changed and it “could” be abused… but it wasn’t abused and it benefited everyone.

It’s a solution to a problem that never existed.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Oversight of what?

What power did RCID have that required state oversight?

Is there some person that was governed by RCID that wasn't being treated fairly?

The law requires the district to review whether or not the Florida Fire Prevention Code complies with the Florida Fire Prevention Code. It’s explicitly stated. That’s the level of unfamiliarity that is being justified.

 

[mmascari]

We know the 2 villages, Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista were/are not real towns/villages/cities.

Do they not have town charters creating them within the state of FL as incorporated land? Or, whatever a village has.

What about that legal definition makes them "not real"? How would someone looking at the documents that establish Miami as a governing entity in FL distinguish that it is a real city while Bay Lake is not?

I had family members who worked for RCID and they had ALL of the perks WDW cast members had, main gate passes, extra passes, really good discounts, and even a sizeable discount on DVC points.

I got a discount when I bought my GM car. That doesn't make me a GM employee. Companies contract out perks all the time.