Disney World has been involved in a serious battle with the state of Florida over the special district it was granted by the state back when Disney World was originally proposed. Disney is now suing Governor Ron DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District over what it claims is retaliation after Disney spoke out against a state law. Florida says Disney should not have the special privileges that the district previously granted the company, but Florida just gave many of those same privileges to Universal Orlando Resort for its new Epic Universe theme park.
The Shingle Creek Transit & Utility Community Development District has been approved by the state of Florida, according to the Orlando Business Journal. The new special district encompasses Epic Universe, the new, currently under construction 3rd gate for Universal Orlando Resort. Universal owns the majority of the land and the board of the new district will be made up of Universal employees who live within the district. Epic Universe is set to open in 2025.
This wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy, as there are dozens of special districts like this in Florida, but the new district has been set up in much the same way that the Reedy Creek Improvement District was originally set up to manage Walt Disney World. Earlier this year, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law that transformed RCID into the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and removed the existing Board made up of residents of the district who were also Disney World employees, replacing them with new members picked by the Governor.
Disney World has filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the governor and the CFTOD board of retaliating against Disney for exercising its First Amendment rights when it spoke out against a Florida law that limited teachers’ ability to address issues of sexual orientation and gender identity in school. The changes to RCID only happened after Disney made its opinion known.
No other Florida special districts have been changed in the same way following the move to modify Disney World’s special district, and now new districts, following the old formula, are being created. It’s certainly an interesting decision by the state. One has to wonder if the new Shingle Creek Transit & Utility Community Development District could actually find itself in the middle of the Disney World lawsuit as an example of exactly what the theme park resort is arguing. For the record, neither Universal nor its parent company Comcast ever made a public statement over Florida’s controversial law.
Disney has promised to spend millions on its parks over the next decade, recently telling investors it planned to increase that expenditure from previously announced levels. However, that doesn’t mean Disney World will be seeing most of it. While many new attractions for Disney World have been announced, Disney is also spending a lot on Disneyland Resort and international parks. Disney CEO Bob Iger has stated that the company could decide to spend less in Florida if business conditions are found to be too difficult to overcome.