Florida lawmakers target Disney’s monorail in latest amendment filing
Jack Birle
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Florida legislators proposed an amendment to make the monorail system at the Walt Disney World Resort subject to state inspections as the board of the district encompassing the resort moves to void an agreement that undermined its power.
The amendment was attached, by Republican state Sen. Nick DiCeglie, on Monday to a transportation bill, Senate Bill 1250, which would authorize funding for projects in rural parts of the state and an automated license plate recognition system on state highways, among other matters.
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The amendment does not mention the monorail system by name but adds lines about a “fixed-guideway transportation systems operating in this state which are located within an independent special district created by local act which have boundaries within two contiguous counties.” The monorail and the Walt Disney World Resort are in the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, a special district that encompasses lands in Orange and Osceola counties.
Another line added in the amendment spells out how “any fixed-guideway transportation systems that are raised or have bridges” would be subjected to inspection by the state.
“The department shall conduct structural safety inspections in adherence with s. 335.074 for any fixed-guideway transportation systems that are raised or have bridges, as appropriate,” according to the amendment. “Inspectors must follow departmental safety protocols during safety inspections, including requiring the suspension of system service to ensure safety and welfare of inspectors and the traveling public during such inspections.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) teased last week that the state would be taking action to subject the resort’s monorail system and attractions to state inspection, saying it would put Disney in line with other amusement parks in the Sunshine State.
“They exempted the monorail from any safety standards or inspections, so they’re going to go and make sure that the monorail is subject to oversight, just like everything else would be in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said at a press conference last week.
The monorail system at the resort connects the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT theme parks, along with the parking lot for the Magic Kingdom, and three hotels. The system opened on Oct. 1, 1971, along with the resort, and has had its current stock of trains since 1989. The system saw its only deadly incident in July 2009, when two trains crashed into each other, killing the 21-year-old driver of one of the trains.
The introduction of the amendment comes as the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is set to declare an agreement between the previous Reedy Creek Improvement District and Disney void. Lawyers for the board have argued the agreement did not properly comply with state sunshine laws.
The agenda for the board’s meeting on Wednesday shows it plans to “declare the Development Agreement and Declaration of Restrictive Covenants entered into by the Reedy Creek Improvement District and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S. void ab initio and direction to litigation counsel regarding same.”
The agreement undercut the state’s takeover of the district by stripping the new board of most of its powers. The accord denies the board the ability to make most changes without permission from the Walt Disney Company. The “King Charles clause” in the agreement ensures Disney has autonomy over the district, which includes the Walt Disney World Resort, until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England, living as of the date of this declaration.”
“All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law,” Disney said in a statement to the Washington Examiner after the DeSantis-appointed board discovered the agreement.
Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia introduced an amendment last week that would nullify the agreement. It would change statutes to say that new governments of special districts have to review and readopt any agreements from the three months prior to the new governing body taking office.
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DeSantis had said the state would take a “strong one-two punch” to void the agreement by using legal and legislative measures.
The battle between DeSantis and the company, which led to Disney’s central Florida district being restructured, stemmed from Disney denouncing DeSantis’s push for the Parental Rights in Education Act last year. Disney had maintained full autonomy over the district since its creation in 1967.