Chiming in for a second, since I deal with independent special districts under Florida law from time to time.
Districts that provide the same type of infrastructure functions as Reedy Creek are generally available to projects throughout Florida. Under Florida law, you can petition to create either a Community Development District (CDD) or a general purpose independent Special District to build out and maintain infrastructure like roads, water and sewer systems, stormwater management systems, electrical utilities, and the like. Those districts also fund their activities through bonds backed by special assessments levied only against the properties within the district boundaries, and (like RCID) are controlled by the landowner/developer. They’re usually only useful for very large projects, so they’re not exactly common - but there are literally hundreds of them across the state, and they’re approved pretty routinely for the type of large-scale developments for which they are appropriate.
What make Reedy Creek so unique is that unlike any other special district, the legislature also granted RCID regulatory powers - like those of an actual city. RCID adopted its own zoning regulations, issued building permits, adopted its own comprehensive growth management plan, and basically wielded all the police-power land development regulatory powers that a municipality would. That has never happened in Florida, before or since.
Interestingly, when De Santis stripped control of Reedy Creek away from Disney and handed it over to his buddies, he made sure they got to keep the muni bond taxing authority.
The more I try to imagine conflict scenarios the less effect I see DeSantis having. Without some really broad obstruction, and putting their fingers in their ears as Disney employees argue for projects and spending, the board members will simply be overwhelmed by the level of detail. We can rephrase the terms “regulatory capture” or “going native” to try to come up with something to describe the phenomenon in more neutral terms, but the dynamic will remain the same.
Nah, the appointees, all appointees of the Governor who picked the fight in the first place, would do that. They’re all committed to helping Disney thrive as a corporation, right?
Disney can run open sewer lines to the muni bond taxing authority members’ homes and dump it all there. Good idea. Saw the same thing in Rio, right next to a small shopping center just off the beach.
Disney cancels $1 billion development in FL. Includes 2,000 jobs with an average salary of $120k. Employees that have already moved to FL may relocate back to CA.
Also included in the Disney statement:
Our plans currently call for us to invest $17 billion in Walt Disney World over the next 10 years and create 13,000 new jobs to continue doing our part as a leading employer in the hospitality and themed entertainment industry. We hope those plans will become a future reality.
I was going to post this, but you beat me to it. I was going to give the post a snarky title, something like “ideological purity wins out over “jobs” and economic growth”. DeSantis’ supporters are probably pleased, figuring Disney employees from “the people’s republic of California” (as styled by Fox Noise) are not the sort they want in Florida anyway.
Disney cancels relocation of division from California amid ongoing fued with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Not that I’m ever going to defend Desantis, but there’s a bit more to the story than just this latest feud.
The relocation was going to be of their Imagineering division from Burbank - where it has been since about forever - to Florida. The move was extremely unpopular with many of those employees, causing some to resign and/or retire rather than move.
I believe this move was a Chapek-era idea, so it doesn’t surprise me that Iger is reversing it. I suspect the move would have been cancelled even without this recent foolishness. But Iger is not a fool, so he’s going to put a little spin on it just to make a bit of a point.
Sort of flies in the face of that “everyone wants out of California” narrative, eh? Of course, they might have been more enthusiastic about the move if it’s wasn’t to the bigot central that Florida is becoming.
I also am cynical enough think the timing of the announcement was not coincidental, coming a couple of days after the FL governor announced he was announcing his entry into the presidential race.
