I am sure that many readers of Samland have heard of the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID). You probably already know that this organization has something to do with the governance of the Walt Disney World Resort. What this series is going to describe is how the RCID, a multi-jurisdictional organization that has more power than most counties in the United States, uses a regulatory document called a Comprehensive Plan to protect the quality of the environment and provide the necessary infrastructure for a resort the size of a medium sized city.
So what is a Comprehensive Plan? It is the primary document that regulates issues such as land use, conservation, urban design, infrastructure, and other factors that add to the character and quality of life within a community. You can think of it as a blueprint for the future. In other parts of the country it may be known as a General Plan or shortened to a Comp Plan. Author Bill Fulton suggests, “The idea of the comprehensive plan is that the future physical form of a community should be envisioned and laid out in a forward looking and wide-ranging document, often accompanied by maps and other graphic representations of the community’s physical form.”
The fundamental purpose of land use planning is resource allocation. Land has an intrinsic value that can be amplified through development or preservation. A Comprehensive Plan is long-range policy planning tool that informs policymakers and all interested parties the best path to maximize those assets.
Before I get to how the Comp Plan helps to plan for the future of the Walt Disney World resort, let me take a step back and talk about the RCID. They are the governmental agency charged with the development and implementation of the plan.
When Walt Disney decided he wanted to create a Disneyland East, one of the first priorities was to avoid the incompatible surrounding land uses that came with Disneyland in Anaheim. Walt bought as much land as he could afford for his Disneyland project. He was saddened when the success of the park attracted adjacent, tourist serving developments that did not live up to his standards. He was not going to repeat that mistake again.
So when Project Future got started, the Walt Disney Company secretly gobbled up more than 43-square miles of Central Florida. With this much land, The Company knew they needed a unique way to govern the property in order to have maximum flexibility and live up to the highest possible standards. The Disney staff and Florida Legislators created the RCID in 1967 to manage the property.
Not only did the Florida Legislature create the RCID, they also incorporated the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista. The three governmental agencies would oversee the development of the 27,400-acre Disney property with the RCID in the lead. The RCID was first created primarily to deal with flood control and drainage issues. However, the unique agreement provides for a lot more authority including providing urban services and regulating the zoning and building codes.
One of the few things the District cannot do is to regulate schools. However, there are no schools within the District due to the very small permanent population. All three governmental agencies are required to comply with the Florida Local Government Comprehensive Planning and Development Regulation Act.
The original development plan guided by Marvin Davis and others in 1965 would allow for the infrastructure plan, the Magic Kingdom theme park, resorts, golf courses, plus a city that combines residential, commercial, and industrial uses. It outlined how the Disney development would be surrounded by a large greenbelt, which will protect the resort from the outside world. It may be hard to believe today, but the District was more than 16 miles from the nearest urban development at the time.
The Disney plan guided the development through the resort’s opening in 1971. By 1974, phase one of the project had been completed and the District decided to draft the first comprehensive plan. The Plan contained new environmental guidelines and land use regulations.
In keeping with the experimental nature of the Walt Disney World project, the Plan predated the State’s mandatory planning regulations. The State made such planning a requirement in 1975. The RCID plan became the model for other Florida communities. At the time, the information would fit onto one map. Today, the Plan uses more than 40 maps.
The Plan was modified in 1979 to meet the State’s standards. Throughout that first decade, the plan served the District and Disney but the Company was about to enter a period of very rapid growth with the opening of EPCOT and the arrival of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells.
In 1988, consultants working with the District and Disney rewrote the plan with the expectation of having three theme parks and a much larger number of hotels, amenities, and second tier attractions. This effort led to an update to the land use regulations in 1993.
The success of the resort meant that urban development around the District property was starting to encroach. This was the motivation for another update that started in 1996 and was completed in 1999.
In 2004, Comcast was looking at buying The Walt Disney Company. Concerned about what this could mean, the State authorized a study to look issues related to a change in ownership of the property. The State concluded that a process to the recall District Board members as well as increasing the level of oversight of the District’s operations was some of the options available. However, none of those changes were implemented when no deal was struck.
The District has promised to update the Plan every five years in accordance with State law. The most recent update was adopted in 2008. The next chapter will describe what information a Comprehensive Plan contains and how a community’s vision is implemented.
Part 2 will run on Monday, July 12. For the next few weeks, I will be going through the Plan one chapter at a time.
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