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

[GoofGoof]

Hardly the same.

Disney was willing to foot the bill to develop and was mostly a positive example of self regulation.

Tesla - and Elon - have attempted to flout regulations and regularly accept actual cash and tax incentives from government to attract them.

I agree it’s not the same but I don’t think there’s any company today which would receive positive feedback. In the 1960s people got their news from newspapers and tv networks from real journalists. Today the echo chambers on one side or the other would stand against any company.

 

[peter11435]

DoD has a 99 year lease

It’s my understanding that it was originally a 99 year lease but then a couple years later they fully purchased.

 

[GoofGoof]

DoD has a 99 year lease

Yeah it appears that way. Per the Shades of Green website:

They received more than 40 responses! It was decided that the offer from the Walt Disney World Company to lease the Disney Inn was the right offer. After negotiations were completed, the Shades of Green opened on 1 February 1994. The Department of Defense leased the resort and the land it sits on with a 100-year lease.

The resort was so successful and popular that MWR decided to purchase the resort in 1996. The resort was purchased outright from Disney. However, Disney still owns the more than 30 acres of underlying property on which the resort sits. Shades of Green is a self-sustaining resort, no outside/taxpayer funds are used in its operation or upkeep.

History

www.shadesofgreen.org

 

[GoofGoof]

It’s my understanding that it was originally a 99 year lease but then a couple years later they fully purchased.

Looks like they bought the resort but the land is still leased so they are not a landowner in the district.

 

[peter11435]

Looks like they bought the resort but the land is still leased so they are not a landowner in the district.

Interesting. I wonder why the OCPA lists them as the owner?

 

[GoofGoof]

I don’t necessarily disagree with you. But the act says “affected property owners,” not “affected land owners.” I do think an argument could be made property is meant to encompass landowners, not owners above the land, but it’s not entirely clear.

It’s a real estate agreement so property means land. The government entity (in this case RCID) has an obligation to inform land owners of record that could be impacted. It’s up to the landowners to inform their tenants of any situation and could be contractually required depending on their lease. The government is not obligated to track down who is leasing the impacted land. If an entity is leasing the land and their lease requires the landowner to inform them of a situation like this then they would have to sue the landowner for damages and breach of the lease contract.

There’s also a requirement to publicly advertise the public meeting which was done through the Orlando Sentinel. The direct mailing to landowners is in addition to that advertisement. The public meeting and newspaper ad are a catch all to inform other potentially impacted parties. Remember these laws are not designed for this situation. It’s done so the government has to inform but not to be overly impractical. Mailing notice to anyone who may be impacted is impractical.

 

[GoofGoof]

Interesting. I wonder why the ORPA lists them as the owner?

You got me on ORPA….not sure what that is. How are Swan and Dolphin listed. I would think it’s a similar setup. Resort is owned by a third party but on leased land.

 

[peter11435]

You got me on ORPA….not sure what that is. How are Swan and Dolphin listed. I would think it’s a similar setup. Resort is owned by a third party but on leased land.

Orange County Property Appraiser. Swan and Dolphin property is listed as owned by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Shades of green shows US Army.

 

[GoofGoof]

Orange County Property Appraiser. Swan and Dolphin property is listed as owned by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Shades of green shows US Army.

Is there a tax assessment for Shades of Green? I thought the Federal Government was exempt from local taxes.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I agree it depends on 1) whether SOG was “carved out” of the property description in the DA (and whether thats availing or controlling), and 2) whether property carved out from the description could be viewed as “affected.” In the instance of this road development project that’s cutting off pedestrian access to Poly/TTC, this property is definitely being affected. My point was whether future developments under the act could be similarly viewed as affecting those other properties.

The land development agreement specifically says it is between Disney and the District. If Disney buys [back] property it becomes part of the deal. Other land owners are not part of the deal.

Road projects are generally district projects so it wouldn’t be part of the land development agreement.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Could you link me to that map?

Interactive Mapping

 

[peter11435]

Is there a tax assessment for Shades of Green? I thought the Federal Government was exempt from local taxes.

Is there a tax assessment for Shades of Green? I thought the Federal Government was exempt from local taxes.

It appears they paid no taxes.

 

[flynnibus]

there probably has been more posts about this poll in this thread then there were actual respondents

Why on earth would anyone need or want a special taxing district? I know people can be silly, but to dislike something simply because they can't have one themselves seems a bit farfetched.

It’s a means to an end. You want a stadium near your business? You want traffic alievated in your area? You want new innovations in your area to make you a differentiator?

Of course what made rcid unique is that disney was basically the only landowner in said district - where in most cases the voluntary types are over a number of landowners with common interests or needs.

But we should recognize that rcid was always about control for disney. It was its genesis and why it was and still is desirable to disney. Disney could have built the same infrastructure and ran it privately or proffered it to the counties… but this arrangement eases things while also insulating the counties… resulting in a quid pro pro.

While some people maybe against it philosophically- it proved to be successful

 

[Patcheslee]

There's a website to track lobbyist appearances, no Disney Lobbyists on SB1604 or HB439 yet. Unless someone wants to pull 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon with it. Found the website when DeSantis said Disney lobbied against trafficking. (That one came up with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association lobbyists, which has 10,000 members so hard to say "Disney is against".)

Lobbyist House Appearances Search

Lobbyist House Appearances Search

www.myfloridahouse.gov

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

A coworker brought up DeSantis last night at work and kind of put this in a new perspective for me, he was excited Trump had competition and was hoping DeSantis could get the nomination, I said I was excited too but he’d lost me over the Disney feud, and my coworker said “what Disney feud?” He had absolutely no clue it even existed.

We are all paying close attention to this because we’re Disney fans but I suspect a lot of (if not most) people have never given it a single thought.

 

[Prince-1]

A coworker brought up DeSantis last night at work and kind of put this in a new perspective for me, he was excited Trump had competition and was hoping DeSantis could get the nomination, I said I was excited too but he’d lost me over the Disney feud, and my coworker said “what Disney feud?” He had absolutely no clue it even existed.

We are all paying close attention to this because we’re Disney fans but I suspect a lot of (if not most) people have never given it a single thought.

This feud has been discussed all over the national news for weeks so I would say most people have a clue what’s going on even if they don’t follow all the details.

 

[Brian]

This feud has been discussed all over the national news for weeks so I would say most people have a clue what’s going on even if they don’t follow all the details.

I was chatting with some of my neighbors last week and brought up the feud, and they didn't know what I was talking about. I live about 15 miles from WDW.

 

[Tha Realest]

The list of RCID landowners was posted here a while back. I believe there were somewhere around 25 listed but I don’t remember seeing DoD on the list. Maybe it’s a shell company that owns for DoD. Either way I agree that they may not be considered “affected” since they do not control development.

I’m sure the DOD is pretty chill about not having a say in surrounding development.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

This feud has been discussed all over the national news for weeks so I would say most people have a clue what’s going on even if they don’t follow all the details.

Probably a vague one at most though, and likely biased one way or the other based on what news they read/watch.

He knew they were taking on Disney over being “woke” but that was the extent of his knowledge, he had no idea it was still ongoing and had no idea what they’d actually done or what RCID was. Probably read a headline or two and that was it.

 

[Tha Realest]

Why was the BOS agenda packet for 2-8-23 just updated on Friday? It looks substantially smaller than what was there before. And it’s not clear what was posted in advance of meetings as required by FL law.