Central Florida Tourism Oversight District To Counter Disney With “Superior Authority” Resolution

The battle between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney is going to get even more interesting. Disney tried to regain control over the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District by having their own Reedy Creek Improvement District board pass questionable caveats giving Disney control even after their board was resolved. Now the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District plans on countering with a new resolution, Resolution 639, which will remove power from the Reedy Creek Improvement District Planning Board and give power to a new Board of Supervisors.

The Board of Supervisors would replace the Planning Board, and they would be “the final decision-making authority for the District.” They would be the highest level, “no further administrative appeal is available” after the Board of Supervisors decides.

In addition to Resolution 639, a new section, 7-20.13, is set to be added to the RCID Land Development Regulations that would give the new board authority of the district again but also Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake as well. The result would be absolute authority over “reviewing, processing, evaluating, commenting on and approving, approving with conditions or denying applications for development orders throughout the District, including within the jurisdictional limits of City of Lake Buena Vista and the City of Bay Lake.”

None of this would be necessary if Disney didn’t decide to try and pull a fast one. For everyone cheering on Disney, remember the old RCID board were the ones who were allegedly not maintaining emergency services that put guests at risk. They also are the mouthpiece of a corporation that has entirely too much power and should never have had as much power as they did.

While I too tire of what is essentially a peeing match between Disney and DeSantis, Disney has overstepped with their last underhanded stunt. This has made the whole situation infinitely worse. During the DisneyShareholders Meeting, Bob Iger made it clear that he felt Disney should be able to do what they want because they pay more taxes than everyone else in Florida.

Disney was given more power than most companies for years and more power than their competitors in the same region. When a company can rewrite the terms to try and stall the government from regulating them, that might be a problem.

I’m sure a lot of people cheering for Disney would feel differently if a corporation they didn’t care for tried to do the same.

Source: Blog Mickey