Walt Disney's 1965 Orlando Decision

Walt and Roy Disney went public with the Florida Project in 1965, after the Orlando Sentinel exposed the secret land buying on October 24, 1965, and they appeared with Governor Haydon Burns at a press conference (The Walt Disney Company).

The company's own history of the Orlando land deal says rumors about the mystery buyer spread through Central Florida until the Orlando Sentinel published an article on October 24, 1965, and that the very next day Walt Disney Productions gave Governor Burns permission to confirm it (The Walt Disney Company). Disney posted that history on November 15, 2012 and marks the same day in 1965 as the date of the first press conference on the Florida Project, which it calls its first official step toward Disney Parks expansion. The announcement is the moment the Orange County land deal stopped being a rumor.

Disney called the plan its Florida Project. Walt Disney World Resort opened on October 1, 1971, nearly six years after the press conference (Orange County timeline). The county timeline places the opening between the 1968 opening of Florida Technological University, now the University of Central Florida, and the 1973 opening of SeaWorld.

Disney bought more than 27,440 acres in Central Florida under the code name Project X, at an average price it puts at less than $200 an acre (The Walt Disney Company).

Seven Disney officials were selected to buy land for an undisclosed project in Central Florida, according to the company, and the company says the land was acquired in secret (The Walt Disney Company). Disney describes the tract as a stretch of land twice the size of Manhattan. Its own example of what secrecy saved: shortly after the announcement, a nearby acre sold at $131,000.

The company's page gives two lengths for the buying. One passage says the land was acquired over a period of nearly two years, and another says acquiring the land took 18 months (The Walt Disney Company). Both figures come from Disney, and no government source cited here settles which is closer, so this guide reports both. The same caution applies to acreage. Disney counts more than 27,440 acres purchased, while the state district created for the land now encompasses approximately 25,000 acres in Orange and Osceola counties (Central Florida Tourism Oversight District). The first is what the company bought; the second is what the district serves today.

On May 12, 1967, Governor Claude Kirk signed the law creating the Reedy Creek Improvement District and two cities inside it, Bay Lake and Reedy Creek, later renamed Lake Buena Vista (CFTOD history).

Orange County says the City of Reedy Creek was controlled by Walt Disney Productions and took the name Lake Buena Vista in 1969, after the street in Burbank, California, where The Walt Disney Company is headquartered (Orange County timeline). The City of Bay Lake, named after the nearby lake, was incorporated the same year, and the county now lists Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach water park and Fort Wilderness Campground inside it. Several Disney resorts and the Disney Springs entertainment district are in Lake Buena Vista today, the county adds.

The district's law is chapter 67-764, Laws of Florida, which the Legislature reenacted, amended and repealed in 2023 through HB 9-B (The Florida Senate). The Reedy Creek district prepared its first Comprehensive Plan in 1974, three years after the Orange County resort opened, and adopted a broader plan in 1991 after a planning effort that began in 1988 (CFTOD history). The district history also records the creation of an environmental monitoring laboratory in October 1971 to test water quality inside the district.

A point that trips up newcomers who file the 1965 decision under Orlando history: Orange County places Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom in the City of Bay Lake, not the City of Orlando (Orange County timeline). Inside its boundaries the oversight district runs its own permitting and inspections and lists fire protection and emergency medical services, potable water, wastewater and electric power among its responsibilities, from administrative offices in Lake Buena Vista (Central Florida Tourism Oversight District).

Walt Disney World Resort opened on October 1, 1971, and the Orange County timeline then lists SeaWorld in 1973, civilian use of Orlando International Airport in 1981 and Universal Studios Florida in 1990 (Orange County timeline).

SeaWorld Orlando, then known as SeaWorld of Florida, opened its gates on December 15, 1973 (Orange County timeline). Orlando International Airport (MCO), originally built for the U.S. military, shifted to civilian use in 1981 and opened its first passenger terminals that year. An earlier entry on the same county timeline, about the former McCoy Air Force Base, says that in 1975 the airport transitioned to exclusive civil use, so the county itself gives two dates for the switch. Universal Studios Florida opened on June 7, 1990, and the county says it is now part of the larger Universal Orlando Resort. The Naval Training Center, transferred to the Navy in 1968, closed in 1993 and its site became the community of Baldwin Park, and the Orlando Magic, founded in 1989, now play at the Kia Center. Orange County's own summary is that the Disney company presence has had an immense impact on the local economy and on how the public sees Central Florida.

One line in the county timeline is out of date: it still calls Universal Epic Universe soon to open, while the LYNX bus system already lists Link 311 to Universal Epic Universe among its popular destinations, beside Links 56 and 300 to Walt Disney World Resort (LYNX). The county timeline also records that Florida Technological University opened in 1968 and changed its name to the University of Central Florida, UCF, in 1978.

In the city's own short history, Orlando was the center of Florida citrus in the 1800s and became a tourism capital in the 1900s (City of Orlando). The city adds that regional leaders have since worked to diversify the economy toward digital media and technology, life sciences and modeling, simulation and training, industries the city now lists beside tourism.

Interstate 4 was already in place when Disney chose the site; its first section opened to motorists in 1959, and the highway now runs 132.3 miles from Tampa to Daytona Beach, through downtown Orlando and the tourism corridor (Orange County timeline). The cited official sources do not state why Disney chose Central Florida, so this guide does not repeat site selection reasons found in secondary accounts.

Florida passed SB 4-C in 2022 to dissolve the Reedy Creek district, then in 2023 passed HB 9-B, which renamed it the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD history).

SB 4-C, a general bill dissolving certain independent special districts, passed the Senate 23 to 16 and the House 70 to 38, was approved by the Governor on April 22, 2022 and became Chapter No. 2022-266 (The Florida Senate). The Senate summary does not name Reedy Creek; the district's own history entry says the bill was signed to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District effective June 1, 2023 (CFTOD history).

CS/HB 9-B, a local bill for the Reedy Creek Improvement District in Orange and Osceola counties, reenacted, amended and repealed chapter 67-764, Laws of Florida, and renamed the district (The Florida Senate). It passed the House 82 to 31 on February 9, 2023 and the Senate 26 to 9 on February 10, 2023. Its effective date is February 27, 2023, and it is Chapter No. 2023-5. The district history records that on February 27, 2023 the Governor signed House Bill 9-B establishing a new state appointed district and appointed 5 new members to the Board of Supervisors (CFTOD history).

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District history page lists Glenton Gilzean Jr. as District Administrator from May 10, 2023 and Stephanie Kopelousos as District Administrator from March 28, 2024 (CFTOD history). Those are the latest administrator entries the district had posted when this page was checked.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District serves approximately 25,000 acres in Orange and Osceola counties, and its boundaries hold 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, 1 sports complex and over 40,000 hotel rooms (Central Florida Tourism Oversight District).

The district also counts 179 lane miles of roadway and 67 miles of waterway, the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, an electric power generating and distribution facility, natural gas and chilled water distribution systems, water and wastewater treatment and a solid waste and recyclables transfer system (Central Florida Tourism Oversight District). The Governor appoints all five members of its Board of Supervisors. Its history page credits water conservation by its Environmental Services Department since 2000 with savings of about 3.7 million gallons a day, an entry dated October 1, 2012, still the latest water conservation entry on that page (CFTOD history).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Orange County timeline, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District history and home pages, and the Florida Senate bill pages for SB 4-C and HB 9-B.