The Walt Disney World affordable housing project has cleared a major hurdle, receiving a green light from the State of Florida’s water management district. This should clear the way for the developer to finally break ground on a project that was first announced back in April 2022. Since then, it has been an uphill battle for the project, facing not only stiff opposition from residents but also numerous regulatory hurdles. Now, that all seems to be in the rear-view mirror. Here’s the latest.
Walt Disney World Affordable Housing Project Receives Greenlight from State
As a quick recap, Disney’s intentions to develop an affordable housing project were first announced back in April 2022. By November of that same year, Walt Disney World announced more details about the project, including some new concept art and where the project would be located. Walt Disney World and the former Reedy Creek Improvement District had annexed some land north of the Flamingo Crossings project to turn defunct water management basins into an affordable housing project.
By June 2023, Walt Disney Imagineering filed a rezoning request, kicking off more than a year of hurdles as Disney attempted to get the parcel zoned properly for a residential project. Walt Disney World faced immediate opposition from area residents. As Disney continued through the community engagement aspects of the rezoning request, new concept art was shared in February 2024.
In mid-February 2024, Disney released new details about the project, including income ranges for people who would qualify for housing. The project would narrowly pass an Orange County Planning and Zoning Commission by a margin of 4-3 despite continued opposition from residents.
By March 2024, the project came before the Board of County Commissioners after marking it through the planning and zoning phase. We were in attendance to capture the scene from downtown Orlando as residents continued to voice opposition to the project. Two of the county commissioners asked for the vote to be postponed, but Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings quickly made a motion and the project passed by a margin of 4-2.
By October 2024, Walt Disney World had received the final zoning approval from the State and county. However, that wasn’t the final hurdle that Disney would face. While groundbreaking was originally scheduled for late 2024, that date pretty quickly slipped into 2025. Throughout 2024, Disney targeted a new groundbreaking timeframe of 2025.
Back in May 2025, we published an article noting that construction for the project had not yet been approved despite an October 2024 zoning approval. By September 2025, we were reading the writing on the wall and said that it would be likely that the project would not break ground until 2026.
Now, in January 2026, there is still no earth being moved, but at least Disney has received the go-ahead to begin construction. A webpage for the project has not been updated in more than a year and still lists a groundbreaking timeframe of 2025.
If groundbreaking happens this year, it’s likely that the first residents wouldn’t move in until 2027 or 2028. Walt Disney World has previously said that a full buildout of the community would take five years.
This housing community will include approximately 1,400 units of mixed income housing, with more than 1,000 of which will be reserved as affordable.
Updated plans filed with the county show that Disney plans on building out the 1,369-unit Affordable Housing complex in five phases. Plans call for a mixture of 1-4 bedroom units. The latest plans that we have reviewed call for 607 one-bedroom units and 762 two to four-bedroom units. The maximum building height is proposed to be 62.5 feet tall, which translates to 5 stories tall.
Walt Disney World has previously committed to making more than 1,000 units “affordable”. While we don’t know the exact unit pricing yet, previously announced details indicated that the majority of affordable housing units would be dedicated to families in the 80% Area Median Income range, which could be a household income of $49,150 up to nearly $90,000. Only 11% of the housing affordable housing units would be allocated for families at the lowest allowable AMI range.
The apartments will be available to rent by anyone who qualifies, including Cast Members, but not limited to Cast Members.
As previously announced, the Walt Disney World Affordable Housing project is a way for Walt Disney World to give back to the Central Florida community that it has called home for more than 50 years.
Disney’s role in the project has been to help with the design and donation of the property. Disney does not stand to directly benefit financially from the project.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
a lot of cast members will be looking forward to these…