“I cannot tell you the level of my disappointment in Disney. I thought so much better of them,” said board member Ron Peri. “This essentially makes Disney the government. This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.”

“I mean, I don’t know what else to say,” Peri added. “I think these documents are void ab initio, I think they were an extremely aggressive overreach, and I’m very disappointed that they’re here.”

The new board has retained legal counsel as they prepare to fight Disney in court over the matter.

“On the day that the legislation was passed by the Florida House, the former board and Disney entered into a development agreement and deed restrictions that essentially stripped most of the governing authority of the district and also made certain promises and concessions to Disney for many, many years out into the future,” said board member Brian Aungst, Jr. “They have tried to take that away from this board, the ability to provide that oversight, and we’re not gonna let that stand.”