A newly published deposition shines some light on how Walt Disney World slowed development plans as the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District took over at the behest of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis retaliated against The Walt Disney Company back in 2022 when they opposed his “Don’t Say Gay” bill amidst his presidential ambitions. As part of that retaliation, DeSantis took over the former Reedy Creek Improvement District and installed his own hand-picked board members. This move forced Disney to slow down development plans, setting projects back by years. Here’s the latest.
Fight With DeSantis Set Back Magic Kingdom Development Plans by Years
Earlier this year, we wrote an article about how the teeth of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District had been pulled, and that the operations of the Board of Supervisors was back to, essentially, a rubber-stamp board. This followed years of hostile relations between the DeSantis-appointed board, as the governor was looking to punish Disney after then-CEO Bob Chapek (reluctantly) spoke out about a new bill that was dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Now, the board is back to a relative normal after all of the original members have been replaced by individuals who appear to be more concerned with the well-being of the District versus political wins over Disney.
New court documents unearthed by Florida Politics offer some insight as to how the original Board of Supervisors, handpicked by DeSantis, altered their plans for expansion in and around Magic Kingdom.
A deposition of Kevin “Todd” Rimmer, Master Planner with Walt Disney Imagineering, shed light on how Disney slowed development at Magic Kingdom as the new Board of Supervisors was taking over.
In the deposition, which was conducted on February 13th, 2024, Rimmer said that there were “some expansion projects around Magic Kingdom” that were delayed. Rimmer said that the expansion projects, at the time, had not yet been announced.
Going back in time a bit, we’ll actually start more than two years prior to the deposition. Back in September 2022, then-Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro was joined on stage by Portfolio Creative Executive Chris Beatty and Walt Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Jennifer Lee for a special blue-sky brainstorm.
That segment of the presentation is when fans first learned of “potential expansion opportunities beyond Big Thunder Mountain”. During the presentation, concepts for Coco, Encanto, and a Villains Land were shown on screen.
Fast-forward to February 2024, and the deposition of Todd Rimmer. When opposing counsel asked for specifics of the development project Rimmer referenced, Rimmer said that “the expansion project is still under development”, but that it “includes new attractions, and redevelopment of existing attractions, and potentially new hotels“.
When asked if this work would be for expanding the footprint of Magic Kingdom to develop undeveloped land, Rimmer confirmed that Disney had plans to expand the footprint of the world’s busiest theme park, along with “redevelopment of existing lands”.
Since Rimmer’s deposition in February 2024, plans for a Cars-themed expansion of Frontierland and an all-new Villains Land were announced a few months later at the August 2024 D23 Expo. It seemed by that point that Disney was comfortable with moving forward with the project, but not before they slowed development years earlier in an effort to see how hostile the DeSantis-appointed board would be.
Rimmer said that Disney deliberately slowed down the progress of the projects to gauge how hostile the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District would be. The first step of the expansion of the northwest corner of Magic Kingdom was water mitigation work. Essentially, Disney needed to obtain wetland credits to transform swampland into theme park land.
What was under consideration here was a new Comprehensive Plan and land development regulation. There was uncertainty at Disney over how the DeSantis-appointed Board would approach Disney’s expansion plans.
Rimmer said that Disney delayed filing more substantial permits before seeing how the Board would treat the early-work permit that was already submitted. Basically, Disney had submitted a permit that would create the development parcels, but they were holding back on permits that would outline specific development.
Rimmer said that the process of obtaining wetland credits was discretionary and that there was hesitation on Disney’s part to move forward with “billions of dollars of investment” unless there was certainty on how the project would proceed. Under the old Reedy Creek Improvement District leadership, Disney could reliably count on the Board to grant wetland credits when the request met regulations. Essentially, if the paperwork was in order, there really was no discretionary element to the process with the RCID. With the new Board, there was concern that the discretionary element would play a bigger role.
When asked who at Disney decided to slow down development, Rimmer said that it was a general consensus from leadership. When pressed on who “leadership” was, Rimmer said that he was referring to site leadership. That is, Walt Disney World leadership, which is led by Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle.
In another February 2024 deposition, John McGowan, Chief Legal Counsel of Walt Disney World, offered more insight as to how the DeSantis takeover of the Reedy Creek Improvement District negatively impacted projects at the resort.
McGowan pointed to the long-running World Drive Phase III project that BlogMickey.com reported was delayed by some 15 months. In our March 2026 report, we found a Central Florida Tourism Oversight District document that said that the original project construction package was intended to be awarded as a single package, but that “funding availability required the construction to be split into two separate phases”. The CFTOD document says that the subdivision of the project “significantly extended the total project duration”.
In his deposition, McGowan offered more insight into how the DeSantis-appointed board led to a delay with the project. Essentially, it came down to an unwillingness from the DeSantis Board to pursue the required bonds to fund the project. The first phase of the project involved utility relocation. That was funded through existing bonds. The next phase of the project would require new bonds, and McGowan said that there were no more funds and that the project came to a halt.
McGowan said that prior to the DeSantis Board taking over, former RCID Administrator John Classe was working on the next bond issuance to finish the project. In his February 2024 deposition, McGowan said that “the work stream ceased”. McGowan plainly stated that if the work stream had not ceased, “World Drive Phase 3 would likely be complete by now”.
In addition, other projects were delayed, such as the expansion of Walt Disney World’s solar farm. Back in 2022, BlogMickey.com reported that a planned solar expansion project was the first Disney World project to experience challenges following legislative action against the Reedy Creek Improvement District by DeSantis’ government.
As reported back in 2022, and confirmed by McGowan’s testimony, the developer of the solar farm project was facing challenges over financing due to uncertainty surrounding the legislation and what impact it may, or may not, have on the district.
McGowan confirmed the 2022 report in his February 2024 testimony. McGowan said that he was told by an employee at Reedy Creek Energy Services that the developer for the solar farm informed Disney that “none of their lenders are willing to lend money for operating loans for any projects in which CFTOD is involved”.
All of this points to an impact on the timing of Walt Disney World’s projects, but not necessarily a prevention of Disney’s projects. Ultimately, Disney and DeSantis called a truce in competing lawsuits, with a likely backroom deal that installed a less hostile Board of Supervisors and a seat at the table when the CFTOD crafted a new Development Agreement.
I think that the truce was good for both Disney and DeSantis, with former CEO Bob Iger calling the settlement a win-win back in April 2024. The settlement allowed Disney to move forward with aggressive expansion plans at its theme parks as part of a 10-year plan to turbocharge growth across the Experiences division. In fact, I would say that Disney appears to be making up for lost time with a flurry of activity now a commonplace sight at any number of Walt Disney World’s construction sites.
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!