Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Seminole Tribe of Florida: A Glimpse at Major Laws That Went Into the Creation, Maintenance, and Prosperity of an Autonomous Corporate Oasis and a Native American Self-Governing People
Adam R. Wagner
I. Introduction
The State of Florida is ranked as the top travel
destination in the world.[1] As a result,
tourism leads the economy[2] with an economic
impact of $67 billion in 2011.[3] In 2014,
97,000,000 people visited the Sunshine State, and the Department of Economic
Opportunity estimated that 1.1 million people can thank the tourism industry
for their employment.[4] Walt Disney World
alone employs over 66,000 people,[5] and the
Seminole Tribe of Florida employs over 10,000 people just at its seven gaming
establishments.[6]
Both organizations are major contributors to
Florida’s economy.[7] The question is how
each organization attained the legal status that was required for them to
become the economic powerhouses that they are today.[8] Part
II of this article briefly touches on which entities are typically granted
zoning powers.[9] Part III of this article
addresses the law that went into the formation and continued operation of the
Reedy Creek Improvement District, which houses the Walt Disney World Resort.[10] Part IV addresses the Seminole Tribe of
Florida and one of the laws that made its creation and sovereignty possible.[11]
II. Brief Overview of Zoning
Zoning comes in all shapes and sizes.[12] Typical classifications are commercial,
industrial, residential, and agricultural.[13] The
government uses zoning to control the physical development of land and how the
land may be used.[14] Zoning rights are
limited by statute and are a function of the legislature that is delegated to
local authorities such as counties, cities or municipalities.[15] The
power to zone may be provided by legislative act.[16] However,
“authority to enact zoning cannot be delegated to a governmental body that is
not elected by the people.”[17]
In 1926, the Supreme Court addressed the
validity of zoning in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co.[18] The
Court “approved zoning as a device to regulate the orderly growth of cities.”[19] Further, zoning ordinances must “bear a
rational relation to the health, morals, safety and general welfare.”[20]
III. Reedy Creek Improvement District
The Reedy Creek Improvement District (“RCID”) is
an area of land in central Florida that is roughly twice the size of the
borough of Manhattan.[21] It is comprised of
about 25,000 acres and is home to the Walt Disney World Resort.[22] The land is owned almost exclusively by the Walt
Disney Company, which maintains a local government that—although hardly
democratic in nature—is considered to be more efficient than most local
bureaucracies.[23]
The RCID is considered a special-purpose
district.[24] When the Florida Legislature
created RCID through Ch. 67-764 of the Laws of Florida in 1967, it granted the
district powers[25] usually reserved for local or
county governments.[26] According to the
United States Census Bureau[27], the objective behind
special-purpose districts is to “exist as separate entities with substantial
administrative and fiscal independence from general-purpose local governments.”[28] RCID—like the majority of special-purpose
districts—is independent from other forms of government, and the district’s
plans and budgets are not subject to the approval of other governments.[29] “This autonomy and actual legislative
capacity elevates [RCID] from merely an advisory board (such as a Board of
Zoning Adjustment) to . . . [that of a] . . . City Council serving in an actual
legislative capacity.”[30] This permitted
RCID to do nearly anything with the land with little or no government
oversight.[31]
IV. Seminole Tribe of Florida
The Seminole Tribe of Florida of today comprises
the descendants of 300 Native Americans.[32] At
the current time, Florida has six Seminole reservations located in Hollywood,
Big Cypress, Brighton, Immokalee, Ft. Pierce, and Tampa.[33] These
reservations are home to Florida’s Seminole tribesmen.[34] To
maintain their economy, the Seminole people are heavily involved with tourism,
gambling, citrus groves, and cattle.[35]
The Seminole Tribe—and all Native American
Tribes for that matter—is not subject to civil jurisdiction in state courts.[36] This is because Native American Tribes are
protected by the doctrine of sovereign immunity.[37] The
exceptions to this rule are when either the Tribe expressly consents to be
sued, or Congress expressly waives the Tribes’ sovereign immunity for civil
actions.[38] Similar to special purpose
districts, the Tribes were granted authority reserved for governments.[39]
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted the
Native American people to form their own governments that would function within
the big picture that is the United States of America.[40] This
was accomplished through section sixteen of the Indian Reorganization Act of
1934, which states, “[a]ny Indian tribe, or tribes, residing on the same
reservation, shall have the right to organize for its common welfare, and may
adopt an appropriate constitution and bylaws.”[41]
Most tribal lands are held in trust by the
government.[42] Because of the trusts, the
lands are subject to tribal—and not state—jurisdiction.[43] The
result being that state laws are not applicable to the land in the trust.[44] The hope is to foster economic growth in
addition to putting control back into the hands of the tribes.[45]
V. Conclusion
Although not the typical entities thought of in
terms of zoning, both the Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Seminole
Tribe of Florida have, through various pieces of legislation, established their
own governments that permit both organizations to lead kingdoms of their
own—whether they be magical or financial—within the borders of the United
States.[46] Each organization has its own
relative autonomy from the parent government, and, through this autonomy, they
have grown to become leaders in the State of Florida both economically and
spiritually.[47]
[1]. Justin
Walton, Florida’s Economy: The 6 Industries Driving GDP Growth, Investopedia (Jan. 13, 2016, 3:52
PM),
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/011316/floridas-economy-6-industries-driving-gdp-growth.asp.
[2]. Id.
[3]. Florida
Quick Facts, StateofFlorida.com, http://www.stateofflorida.com/facts.aspx (last visited
Mar. 20, 2016).
[4]. Walton, supra note
1.
[5]. Id.
[6]. See
infra note 314.
[7]. See
infra Part III and Part IV.
[8]. See
infra Part III and Part IV.
[9]. See
infra Part II.
[10]. See
infra Part III and Part IV.
[11]. See
infra Part III and Part IV.
[12]. See
What is Zoning, http://people.uwec.edu/ivogeler/w270/what_if_zoning.htm
(last visited Mar. 19, 2017).
[13]. Id.
[14]. Id.
[15]. Id.;
24 Fla. Prac. Florida Municipal Law and Practice § 12:3, Westlaw (database
updated Oct. 2016).
[16]. Id.
[17]. Id.
[18]. 272
U.S. 365 (1926).
[19]. Id.; see
also Roy P. Cookson & Burt Bruton, Zoning Law,
35 U. Miami L. Rev. 581,
581 (1980).
[20]. Village
of Euclid, 272 U.S. at 392; see also Nectow v. Cambridge,
277 U.S. 183, 188 (1927); City of Miami Beach v. 8701 Collins Ave, Inc., 77 So.
2d 428, 430 (Fla. 1955).
[21]. Todd
William Gretton, Responsible Corporate Environmental
Policy: Available in Fantasyland; Coming Soon to Main Street U.S.A.
A Glimpse at a Corporate Owned and Operated Special Purpose District and Its
Impact on the Environment in Central Florida, 15 Pa. St. Envtl. L. Rev. 151, 151
(2006).
[22]. Id.
[23]. Id. at
153.
[24]. Id. “A
special [purpose] district is a government subdivision that addresses a special
need for a particular geographic area.” See Gretton, supra note
21.
[25]. See
infra Part III.
[26]. Chad
D. Emerson, Merging Public and Private Governance: How
Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District “Re-Imagined” the Traditional
Division of Local Regulatory Powers, 36 Fla. St. L. Rev. 177, 178 (2009).
[27]. U.S. Dep’t of Commerce, Bureau of the Census,
1992 Census of Governments (1997).
[28]. Emerson, supra note
26, at 179.
[29]. Id. at
181.
[30]. Id.
[31]. See
id.
[32]. Seminole
History,
http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/seminole-history/ (last
visited July 24, 2016).
[33]. Id.
[34]. Id.
[35]. Id.
[36]. 29
Fla. Jur. 2d Indians § 11 (2016).
[37]. Id.
[38]. Id.
[39]. See
id.
[40]. G.
William Rice, The Indian Reorganization Act, the Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous People, and a Proposed Carcieri “Fix”: Updating
the Trust Land Acquisition Process, 45 Idaho
L. Rev. 575, 578 (2008).
[41]. 25
U.S.C. §§ 461–63, 467, 470–71, 476–77, 476 (2014).
[42]. Ezekiel
J. N. Fletcher, Negotiating Meaningful Concessions from States in
Gaming Compacts to Further Tribal Economic Development: Satisfying the
“Economic Benefit” Test, 54 S.D.
L. Rev. 419, 440 (2009).
[43]. Id. at
441.
[44]. Id.
[45]. See
id.
[46]. See
supra Part II–IV.
[47]. See
supra Part III and Part IV.
