Reedy Creek Improvement Act
| Reedy Creek Improvement Act | |
|---|---|
| Florida Legislature | |
| Enacted by | Florida Legislature, 1967 |
| Enacted | May 12, 1967 |
| Signed by | Claude R. Kirk, Jr. |
| Commenced | May 12, 1967 |
| Date of expiry | June 1, 2023 |
| Repealed | April 22, 2022 |
| Repealed by | |
| Florida Senate Bill 4C (2022) | |
| Summary | |
| An Act relating to the establishment, powers and functions of the Reedy Creek Improvement District; changing the name of the Reedy Creek Drainage District created under authority of Chapter 298, Florida Statutes, to the Reedy Creek Improvement District; setting forth new territorial boundaries of the District in Orange and Osceola Counties and excluding certain lands from said boundaries. | |
| Status: Repealed | |
The Reedy Creek Improvement Act, otherwise known as House Bill No. 486, was a law enacted in the U.S. state of Florida in 1967 establishing the area surrounding the Walt Disney World Resort (the Reedy Creek Improvement District) as its own county governmental authority, which granted it the same authority and responsibilities as a county government.
The bill, which was sought by and pushed for by Disney, was signed into law by Florida Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr. on May 12, 1967, allowing Disney to build the infrastructure for the second park. Ground breaking followed on May 30. In Roy O. Disney's last act as the company's CEO in 1968, he officially named the second park Walt Disney World.
The status of the law has been challenged since its passage. In 1968, the Supreme Court of Florida ruled that the law did not violate any provision of the Constitution of Florida. Among the proposals that Disney lobbied to get the law passed was Walt Disney's vision of a real planned city within the property called the ''Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT), which was intended to serve as a test bed for new city-living innovations. The company however eventually decided to abandon Walt's concepts for the experimental city after his death, primarily only using the district for its own commercial interests.
On April 22, 2022, amidst a dispute between Disney and Governor Ron DeSantis, the Reedy Creek Improvement Act was repealed, with the District itself set to dissolve in June 2023. Following concerns about the dissolution process, particularly the handling of the District's outstanding debt, the Act was effectively replaced in February 2023 by CS/HB 9-B, which retained the district (albeit with reduced powers), renamed it to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, and placed it under control of a Governor-appointed board.