As part of a “win-win” settlement with Walt Disney World, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Central Florida Tourism Oversight District agreed to invalidate development agreements and a comprehensive plan that it had implemented. Instead, the District will go back to the drawing board, this time bringing Walt Disney World along for the ride, to craft a new comprehensive plan and development agreements that should more equitably govern development rules for Walt Disney World property over the next 30 years.

According to a meeting notice from the District, they will take some of the first steps toward that new development agreement in a May 22nd meeting where they will introduce a new resolution that will create new a regulation regarding development agreements. Whereas the District used to be managed to be a thorn in Disney World’s side as retaliation for Disney’s opposition to DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the District and Disney turned a corner with new leadership at the District and a court settlement.

While we don’t expect the Oversight District to function like the former Reedy Creek Improvement District, we also don’t expect the teeth of “oversight” to be as sharp with the removal of former Chairman Martin Garcia.

Back in April, Disney CEO Bob Iger commented on the settlement, saying that the agreement will “enable [Disney] to pursue the kinds of investment in our Florida parks” that they have previously alluded to. Most notably, fans were very excited about the announcement that Disney would be investing $17 billion in the Walt Disney World theme parks over the next 10 years, but that investment was put at risk by DeSantis’ stance against Disney and an adversarial Oversight District. Now, Disney and the District will have a more collaborative relationship, and we expect that to be the tone moving forward from both sides.

At this time, we’re not sure if a new development agreement and comprehensive plan will be presented at the May 22nd meeting or not, but we believe both sides will want to get something written in stone sooner rather than later. Currently, the comprehensive plan is four years out of date since the settlement agreement required a fallback from the 2032 plan to the 2020 plan.

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!