According to a notice posted in the Orlando Sentinel, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and Walt Disney World have reached an agreement on development plans for the next decade at the resort. The development agreement will be presented for a first reading at a June 5th Board of Supervisors meeting.
The development agreement will encompass roughly 17,400 acres, and it will set limits on development over the next decade. A redrawing of the development agreement was part of the “win-win” settlement between the District and Disney World, where the District agreed to nullify its own development agreement and go back to the drawing board with Disney as a drafting partner.
At a high level, the proposed development agreement will limit development uses over the next 10 years to the following maximums:
- 53,467 hotel rooms
- 1,258,564 square feet of office building space
- 1,732,887 square feet of retail/restaurant space
- 5 “minor” theme parks (read: water parks, ESPN Wide World of Sports, etc)
- 5 “major” theme parks (read: one more theme park)
Inevitably, someone will read this and think that a 5th gate is coming – that’s not what’s happening at all. The development agreement lists development maximums, not development outcomes. So while the development agreement allows for the densities listed above, whether or not Disney will use all of the allowed densities remains a business decision for the theme park giant.
Furthermore, the proposed maximum of a 5th theme park is nothing new. The inclusion of 5 “major” theme parks has been part of prior development maximums for decades. So while you’ll certainly read headlines declaring a 5th gate is coming, this development agreement suggests nothing of the sort.
The proposed development agreement is still subject to a vote from the Board of Supervisors at a later meeting.
BlogMickey.com has reached out to Walt Disney World for comment.
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