The History Of Celebration, Fl

Celebration was founded in 1994 on Disney-owned land that had previously been undeveloped (and used for relocating alligators which had been caught near Disney guest areas). Celebration was de-annexed from the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Coincidentally, the original 1967 borders of the City of Reedy Creek covered much of the land that is now Celebration, before the borders of Reedy Creek were moved northeast in 1969 and the town was shortly thereafter renamed to the City of Lake Buena Vista. At that time, this city (along with the City of Bay Lake) covered only portions of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, presumably the portions that were being considered for communities.

It is sometimes claimed that Celebration was intended to fulfill Walt Disney's original vision for EPCOT as an experimental location where people could live, but the Celebration Company has never stated this as a motivation.

Residents first moved into homes in Celebration on June 18, 1996. Through the first years of the town, many townspeople persevered and banded together even more tightly as a community to make sure that the town lived up to its commitments and its promise. As a result the town of Celebration, Florida, can be said to have fulfilled most of its original intentions.

One peculiarity of the town early on was that it was run by The Celebration Company, a fully owned subsidiary of the Disney Company, rather than by elected officials. The result of this has been that some decisions made on behalf of the residents of the community were made with Disney's profits in mind rather than the townspeople's desires - for example, the downtown area contains several shops selling collectibles, but no gas station or video rental store. This problem is going away as residents have gained elected positions on the board of the Celebration Residential Owners' Association, and as Disney diminishes its role in the town. Disney recently sold the downtown