Disney Reaches Settlement With Gov. DeSantis-Appointed Board, Clearing Way For Disney World Expansion

Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District have agreed to settle their disputes around the control of the special district that is home to Walt Disney World. This agreement clears political hurdles that may have been discouraging Disney from investing in their Florida Walt Disney World theme parks.

Over a year ago we broke down what you need to know about the Disney vs Governor DeSantis situation and if the DeSantis Florida debacle would have any impacts on Walt Disney World vacations. Since that time we have not spent much of our “ink” covering the fight because the politics of the board did not appear to be having direct impacts on the day-to-day operations of the resort though they may have been weighing on long-term planning decisions. However, now there's been a big positive development that helps to reestablish the status quo for Walt Disney World.

Let's dive into the specifics of the news around the new settlement and the likely impacts of this news on the future of Walt Disney World.

Disney World's Self-Governing Body Changes and Why It Matters

When Disney publicly opposed the Parental Rights in Education Act, a bill called the “Don't Say Gay” bill by critics “because it forbade instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools according to Politico, the Governor of Florida acted against Disney.

The report from Politico explains that DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Legislature retaliated against Disney and took over Disney's special governing district. This district, called Reedy Creek, was a “decadeslong special arrangement that allowed Disney to self-govern”.

Over the past year the newly appointed board, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, has worked to restrict the development privileges granted to Disney by the other board. The clearest way that they did this was through a state lawsuit to void the agreements that Disney and the old district board made right before the new DeSantis board was appointed. Disney then asked the courts to rule that the agreements were valid.

Now, today's big news is that Central Florida Tourism Oversight District announced at their March 27, 2024 meeting that there's been a settlement over those lawsuits and a new administrator has been appointed to lead the governing board. The settlement includes that Disney agrees that the comprehensive plan they attempted to push through in 2023 is void but also that Disney will be consulted for the development of changes to the existing 2020 comprehensive plan. It also states that “Disney will seek permission to defer briefing in the federal appeals lawsuit against Ron DeSantis, pending negotiations and other new development with the District” according to the documents broken down by Blog Mickey.

Today Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle shared this statement…

“We are pleased to put an end to all litigation pending in state court in Florida between Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. This agreement opens a new chapter of constructive engagement with the new leadership of the district and serves the interests of all parties by enabling significant continued investment and the creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and economic opportunity in the State.”

Stephanie Kopelousos is the new district administrator. She is “widely viewed by Tallahassee insiders as favorable to the entertainment giant” and has a background of governing including a law with specific carveouts that have benefited Disney. During a board meeting, she said she aims to  “foster collaboration, drive innovation and most importantly ensure that we are the premier tourism destination in the country” according to Politico.

The Florida Governor's spokesperson also released a statement that reads, “No corporation should be its own government. Moving forward, we stand ready to work with Disney and the District to help promote economic growth, family-friendly tourism, and accountable government in Central Florida.”

At the same time, DeSantis named a new chair of the board. That chair, Craig Mateer, ran a business that was the longtime contractor that operated the baggage handling for Disney's Magic Express service. Presumably, he will be far more friendly to Disney's goals.

Why This Ruling is Favorable For Disney

As we said at the top of the article, we have avoided lots of reporting on this topic because it wasn't having a direct impact on our readers and planning vacations. Now, we believe this news today does have an impact on the resort and its ability to plan for the long term.

In November, Disney released a report that we shared that discussed the positive impacts of Walt Disney World Resort on Central Florida and the state overall. It stated that the resort generates over $40 billion in impact and 250,000 jobs. While also releasing this report they inferred that things needed to be resolved with the board and governance of the resort before they could invest further.

As we have shared several times here, Disney is at the beginning of rolling out their plans to invest $60 billion over the next decade in the Disney Parks division across the world in an effort to turbocharge the Disney Parks. Disney CEO Bob Iger recently shared more details on how the money would spent.

Disney has already confirmed that a new land is coming to Animal Kingdom and teased that it may feature Encanto, Coco, and Indiana Jones. Disney has also continually teased plans to expand the Magic Kingdom with expansions “Beyond Big Thunder Mountain”.

All of these expansion efforts and investments in Florida could have been stalled further if the state and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District had remained adversarial. Today, a major hurdle was lifted to welcome Disney's investment in the state. For the same reason that it was notable when California Governor Gavin Newsom visited the Disneyland Resort, it's very notable that this battle is Florida is cooling down. Now, Disney can turn their focus back to developing the parks and away from protecting the levers needed for them to develop in the first place.

At Disneyland in California, we are also waiting on one final approval from the City of Anaheim to approve the DisneylandForward rezoning project which would allow Disney to rezone their existing land to build. As part of that agreement, Disney has already stated that they will spend at least $1.9 billion to expand that resort if approved. That rezoning package is slated to be voted on in April.

Now, Walt Disney World has their hurdles cleared and Disneyland appears to almost be in the same position. Both of these government zoning changes set the table for a massive set of announcements at D23 Expo 2024 this August in Anaheim. That said, perhaps we could receive news of expansion even sooner. We have already been thrilled to see that Disney is announcing what would have been considered “big news” at last year's expo far earlier. When we saw the Disney Destiny cruise ship announced casually on a Tuesday morning, we took it as a sign that Disney has too much for the D23 presentation already and that they need to save the presentation for only the most impactful set of announcements. Compare that to last expo when the Disney Treasure details and name were big news at the event.

Our eyes are also on The Walt Disney Company annual shareholders meeting which takes place next week. Not only will it end the long Disney proxy battle, but it could be a place where Disney pulls out some bigger parks announcements now that this Disney World hurdle is clear. We will have to wait and see.

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