ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an overview of the enabling statutes, with particular emphasis on their relevance to Disney's preliminary goals for EPCOT. It outlines some of Disney's early thinking about community governance and social planning for the experimental community. A memorandum on the Establishment of Special Taxing Districts and Municipalities on the Walt Disney Productions Property' was prepared by the law firm of Helliwell, Melrose & DeWolf. Disney learned the lesson of controlling the built environment in 1964, when he headed off a hotel project under consideration by the Anaheim City Council. Disney's voting control and landownership statements illustrate the plans he had to create the special district to help administer Project Florida. Disney's experimentation also had its limits in the area of social planning. In the areas of community governance and social planning, Disney's death left his team with several significant questions to be answered.