Disney World's Oversight District Moves to Codify Its 2045 Growth Caps: One More Major Park, Two Minor Parks, and Thousands More Hotel Rooms
Speculation about a fifth Disney World gate is fun, but the more concrete story is the paperwork that quietly decides how much bigger the resort is even allowed to get. On Friday, July 24, that paperwork took a big step forward.
Cleared land at the edge of Magic Kingdom, where Piston Peak and Disney Villains Land are taking shape. The new rules govern exactly how much more of this Disney can build. Image: Blog Mickey
What the planning board did
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the governing body that replaced Disney's old Reedy Creek Improvement District, held a planning board meeting on July 24. The board voted unanimously to recommend Resolution No. 686, which takes the growth ceilings from the District's 2045 Comprehensive Plan and writes them into the actual land development code that District staff use to review construction permits day to day.
The recommendation now heads to the District's Board of Supervisors for final adoption. This is a required piece of housekeeping, not a surprise: state law requires the District to amend its land development regulations within one year of adopting a new comprehensive plan, which it did last year.
The numbers that set the ceiling
Here is what the 2045 plan allows the resort to grow to, according to the figures Blog Mickey reported from the meeting:
Theme parks: room for one more major theme park and two more minor theme parks beyond what is built today.
Hotel rooms: the cap rises from 28,267 keys to 39,801 keys.
Retail and restaurant space: from 897,887 square feet to 1,463,222 square feet.
Office space: from 882,000 square feet to 1,033,564 square feet.
Golf: room for 18 more holes.
These are ceilings, not construction plans. They set the outer limit of what Disney can build through 2045, which is why they matter to anyone tracking where the resort goes next.
A fifth park is allowed, but not planned
The most eye-catching line is the allowance for one more major theme park. The 2045 Comprehensive Plan does include provisions for a potential fifth Walt Disney World theme park. That is a long way from a commitment, though, and there are currently no announced plans for a fifth gate. The provision simply keeps the door open.
For context, Disney already has plenty on its plate across the existing resort, including Piston Peak National Park and Disney Villains Land at Magic Kingdom, a Tropical Americas retheme at Animal Kingdom, the Monstropolis coaster land, and Disney Lakeshore Lodge.
New rules for floating solar
Resolution No. 686 is not only about theme parks. It also adds standards for floating solar arrays on Disney property. Any such installation would be limited to man-made water bodies of at least 10 acres, could cover no more than 20 percent of the surface, would need panels that rise and fall with the water level, buried power and communication lines, glare controls, and a decommissioning plan. It is the kind of detail that only lands in the news on a slow summer Friday, but it hints at how the District expects the resort to power itself over the next two decades.
Sources
Blog Mickey, Disney by Mark (WDWNT).
Image credit: aerial photo by Blog Mickey.
