Here's the scuttlebutt from my friends "inside the berm". The staff shops along Disneyland Drive north of Pooh Bear are emptying out and moving to the "Cerritos Warehouse" at Cerritos and State College in Anaheim, about a mile from the park where Company D, the cast member store, is currently located. The Circle D Ranch cast have been notified that they will be adopting out the goats and petting zoo animals and moving the horses temporarily to Anaheim Hills, approximately 20 minutes away. A permanent home is up in the air.
It is widely assumed that the recycling center, due west of Circle D and north of RoA will move, as well as the horticulture center further west, and against Disneyland Drive and adjacent to the auto entrance to Mickey and Friends. This leaves the Transportation Center (motor pool, if you will) which is directly South of Horticulture and just inside Winston Gate which adjoins the U-Turn you take on the tram leaving the loading area to go South to the Esplanade.
Essentially, If you go west from Toontown and curve around the Rivers of America to Pooh Bear, this is the plot for Star Wars Land. I don't have a thumbnail estimate for the acreage, but I believe it's in the ballpark. It is believed that the Parade Float Building due North of Circle D and the two Entertainment Buildings (N18 and N19) which are due North of Toontown are safe.
Fantasmic! must go down for an extended period because the access to the boat dock for the Princess Barges and TickTock the Crocodile, located between the Indian Village the the DLRR will be landlocked during construction. All the costumes for the performers are trucked in over the railroad tracks every night for the shows.
There are rumors about eliminating all or part of the portion of Tom Sawyer Island North of the Fort, shortening the River, and routing the train on an S-curve down through the Festival Arena then back up around the new back side of the River, but this is pure speculation at this point. Remember the two absolutes are the exit of the train from Splash Mountain and the entrance of the tunnel before Toontown station.
Cast members fervently hope that if any of the previous paragraph is true they would add an access tunnel to the Fort with expanded facilities for Fantasmic! You have no idea what a challenge that is for the cast, techs, and costuming.
One historical note: there is a rumor that the Pope House, which is part of Circle D Ranch, will be located to the TDA Visitor Parking Lot just inside the Ball Road Cast Drive Entrance. This is the house that existed on the Disneyland property when it was purchased and was moved backstage to provide a home for Art Pope and his family as a condition for his hiring as the horse and rigging expert in Disneyland's early years. It now functions as part of Circle D and additional meeting space, which it would continue to provide.
Sadly, if my calculations are accurate, we would lose the original Railroad shed which lines up with the boarded-over tunnel exit behind the waving Indian Chief (Sir Waves-a-lot) on the backside of the River. We lost the original Monorail shed/garage/roundhouse when Roger Rabbit was built.
One detail I noticed--it may be that the towering structures in the Star Wars Land rendering may not back up to the Berm and Frontierland, but rather may be meant to shield and disguise the Mickey and Friends parking structure. If you stand in front of Riverbelle Terrace near the entrance to Pirates and look up-river you can make out the lights of M&F through the trees. This has to be a major concern for Imagineering.
I also don't know what will happen to Hungry Bear as there would likely be a connection from Critter Country to Star Wars Land if my information is correct. It would be a tight squeeze between Hungry Bear and Pooh, but the only restrooms North of New Orleans Square are located there. I would hate to lose Hungry Bear--it's one of the few quiet spots in the park.
Well, that's my two cents. We'll know more in six months to a year as they begin to fence off the construction zone and start clearing land. I'm told by cast members that they are already marking the utilities in spray paint on the pavement backstage and have done some cut-and-cover trenching behind Toontown. We'll see what happens!
