Paradise Bay, Orange

  

Paradise Bay, Orange
Civil township
Township of Paradise Bay
Mickey's Fun Wheel at Disney California Adventure's Pixar Pier and Paradise Gardens
Flag
Sovereign state	Kingdom of Sierra
Country	Sierra
Province	Orange
County	St. Anne
Incorporated	September 19, 1971
Government
• Mayor	Brady Ebnet
Area
• Total	19.0 km2 (7.35 sq mi)
• Land	30.6 km2 (11.82 sq mi)
• Water	3.3 km2 (1.27 sq mi)  9.307%
Elevation	48 m (157 ft)
Population (2010)
• Total	87
ZIP codes	92802
Call codes	714

Paradise Bay is a civil township in St. Anne County, Orange. It is coterminous with the Katella Development District, which governs the township directly. It is known for being the site of the Disneyland Resort, including its two theme parks, three hotels, and shopping district complex. Within the civil township are the villages of Pepperwood, Epcot, and Manchester Gardens. It is the only municipality in the Kingdom of Sierra controlled by The Walt Disney Company and one of the few remaining company towns in the country. Despite its name, Paradise Bay is not by a bay but is rather named after the eponymous manmade lake at the Disney Sierran Adventure theme park. According to the 2010 Census, it had a population of 87, all of whom are employees of The Walt Disney Company. It is an enclave completely surrounded by the City of Rothenburg (mainly by the Rothenburg Resort, a high-density commercial and retail district).

The civil township was incorporated on September 19, 1971 through an act passed by the Orange Provincial Legislature. It comprises the original Disneyland Park, as well as over 7 square miles of land surrounding the park that was purchased and owned by the Disney company or its subsidiaries (most of which were shell corporations created solely to acquire desired property). Walt Disney, the founder of the company and Disneyland, did not approve of the third-party businesses that developed southeast of Disneyland and sought to secure additional land for development for both expansion and buffer zone purposes. He also envisioned the development of a planned model community that would showcase the "blueprint of the future" with both residential and industrial districts, with this idea later implemented at Walt Disney World in Las Vegas. The path to incorporation faced legal challenges by the City of Rothenburg, local business owners, private homeowners, and nearby competitors. Disney and his company successfully lobbied support by the provincial and county governments to establish a special district over Disney properties in Orange. The Katella Development District was established, which was granted nearly full autonomy over the area, and founded the civil township of Paradise Bay.

History

In 1955, Continental-Sierran animator and entrepreneur Walt Disney opened Disneyland, a 160-acre theme park located in Rothenburg. The park proved to be a critical success and generated an economic boom in the region from the hundreds of thousands of visitors it attracted each year. Initially, Disney had planned to buy more land from the City of Rothenburg in order to expand Disneyland but faced budgetary restraints due to the costs associated with planning and opening Disneyland. Within several years, the mainly agricultural and undeveloped land surrounding Disneyland began to witness the arrival of third-party business projects and residential housing development. Southeast of Disneyland Park was an emergent hotel and shopping district that included bright neon signs, nightlife, and tourist trap attractions which Disney disapproved of. The City of Rothenburg did little to curb or zone off the area as it reaped millions in tax dollar revenue by the businesses and tourists that came. He believed the environment created by his neighbors contrasted with the imagery and scenery he wanted to evoke at Disneyland. By 1960, he begun actively searching for ways to acquire more land and halt the development within Disneyland's vicinity.

While Disney made plans to expand Disneyland, he also looked into options for opening another similar theme park. After scouting several locations, he chose a location several miles outside of Las Vegas city limits in Clark after initially selecting Orlando, United Commonwealth (where he was turned down by Continental lawmakers). There, Disney and his company was able to purchase larger acreage of land and property that was undeveloped and isolated from established communities. Disney executives and employees founded a number of shell corporations around the desired area, and then banded together to petition the local government to give The Walt Disney Company full control over the area. The entire land-buying scheme proved to be a success but was kept out of public eye. Disney aimed to replicate the same success at his original park and started buying surrounding land in 1961.

In 1964, the Walt Disney Company faced their first major obstacle to expanding Disneyland when Rothenburg city officials denied the company permission to purchase a two-square mile plot of land due south of the park. City officials wanted to zone the land off for real estate developers. Walt Disney proposed constructing his Epcot-inspired community there and sent designs to the city government, which rejected them due to skepticism.