Walt Disney World plans to break ground next year on a 1,400-unit affordable housing development near the theme park in Orlando, amid an ongoing tussle with Florida governor Ron DeSantis over control of the vast resort complex.
The housing development now includes over 100 more units than the plans Disney announced a year ago, when it set aside 80 acres of land for the project, Rena Langley, SVP for Walt Disney World communications, wrote on the Disney Parks Blog Wednesday. It’s expected to be completed in 2026.
“We hope to make a positive impact wherever we can in our community, so to be able to offer more units means even more Florida families will get access to attainable housing, in addition to creating new Florida jobs as part of the construction and operation,” Langley wrote. The privately financed development will be limited to applicants within a “certain income range,” the post said, though that range was not specified.
The announcement came two months after DeSantis engineered a state takeover of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a local government entity that had allowed Disney the authority and responsibility of a county government since the 1960s. In a move that escalated the clash with DeSantis — which has its roots in the media conglomerate’s opposition to the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law — Disney stripped the district of much of its power, including over development, before the state took hold.
On Wednesday, the Reedy Creek board, now filled with DeSantis appointees, asked attorneys to prepare a resolution to void the agreement and restrictive covenants that enabled Disney to keep control over expansion at the resort, The New York Times reported.
“The bottom line is that Disney engaged in a caper worthy of Scrooge McDuck to try to evade Florida law,” said David H. Thompson, a Washington D.C.-based lawyer hired by the board, during the meeting, Florida Politics reported. “Its efforts are illegal.”
Separately, the state legislature is preparing to take up a bill that would nullify the agreement and covenants, which prohibit certain types of construction, like other theme parks, on strips of land surrounding the resort.
The dispute increasingly looks like it will end up in court. Disney has said it will fight any attempt to revoke the development agreement and covenants, The Times reported.
Members of the oversight board also said at the meeting that they will increase taxes on Disney, the state’s largest employer and among its largest taxpayers, to help pay for a legal battle, The Times said. The panel also fired planning board officials and appointed its own members to replace them, and raised the possibility of building low-income housing on adjacent land.