A 24-acre fake lagoon constructed in the middle of the California desert will be at the heart of a new Disney-branded planned community, the company announced this week.
Rancho Mirage, California, a city in the Coachella Valley not far from Palm Springs, will be the site of Disney’s first “Storyliving” community, the company said in a press release.
The new developments will be staffed with “Disney Cast Members” and offer Disney entertainment and activities, with the goal of creating “neighborhoods that are infused with the company’s special brand of magic”, the company said. Some neighborhoods will be designated as senior living communities for people over the age of 55.
Plans at the site, chosen in part because Walt Disney himself owned vacation properties in the area, include a private waterfront club and private beach access for members, as well as some paid public access to the man-made beach.
Storyliving is not Disney’s first attempt to translate the popularity of its theme parks and vacation resorts into a model for daily life. In the mid-1990s, the company developed Celebration, Florida, a community at the border of its Disney World resort, known for its rigid small-town Americana aesthetic and pre-scheduled fake snow.
Celebration has since dealt with challenges, including the foreclosure crisis, a 2016 lawsuit by some residents over mold, leaks, and other overdue repairs, and the high-profile trial of a man accused of murdering his wife, three children, and their family dog inside their Celebration home in 2020. The town is no longer owned by Disney.
While Rancho Mirage’s mayor said the Disney development was a “fabulous fit” and the project is estimated to bring the city more than $8m per year, an environmental expert said that constructing a giant lagoon in the middle of a parched desert landscape raised some obvious issues.
“Having a large lake – 24 acres is big – in a very hot desert, in a state where we do not have a lot of extra water to go around, doesn’t make sense environmentally,” said Nicola Ulibarri, who researches water management at the University of California, Irvine.
Disney has announced ‘STORYLIVING’, their own residential neighborhoods that will allow fans to “look for new ways to make Disney a bigger part of their lives.” pic.twitter.com/sx1AFVuZXr
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 16, 2022
“In California, pretty much every drop of water is spoken for,” she said. “If you have water that is sitting in a lake and evaporating, it’s not going to provide drinking water for people, it’s not going down to a river where it’s providing a habitat for fish.”
If the lagoon were constructed with recycled graywater, that would mitigate some of the environmental impact, she said.
In a press release, Disney said it would build the lagoon “sustainably” and “with low water consumption and using a minimum amount of additives and energy”.
The environmental impact report for the project, which was approved before Disney announced its involvement, said the development would reduce its “potential to substantially decrease groundwater supplies” by using recycled water and other strategies, The Desert Sun reported.
The Coachella Valley is already the site of extensive water-intensive developments like golf courses and lush green retirement communities, Ulibarri said.
The “Storyliving” announcement also raised questions of “equity,” since the Disney “Cotino” development is likely to be expensive and targeted towards higher-income retirees.
“Not too far away from the Coachella Valley is the Salton Sea, which historically was a big lakefront resort. Now it’s evaporating more and more every year, and is creating huge health problems for the lower-income communities in that area,” she said.
Dust from the evaporating Salton Sea is a major problem for local residents, and children in who live near the sea have higher rates of asthma.
“You’re creating this wonderful amenity for this wealthy group, turning your back on the Salton Sea and all the problems it’s created there,” Ulibarri said.
POV you’ve just tried to leave your Storyliving by Disney ecovillage pic.twitter.com/Kx0oMWIx80
— Edburg🌴 (@EBBerger) February 17, 2022
Twitter users have already embraced the “Storyliving” brand as a source of inspiration for jokes, many focused on an imagined dystopian future of the Disney community.
The year is 2052. Our protagonist: a 16 year old with bright eyes and boundless curiosity. His whole life he lived inside the walls of Storyliving and consumed endless Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney content. It was paradise. Until one day he wondered: What lies beyond the walls? https://t.co/nbrb0VROGG
— Rachel Summers’ Publicist (@616rachelsummer) February 16, 2022
Other participants in the online joke-workshop focused on how Disney might manage the problems of a residential neighborhood.
Disney condemned for pre-emptive deployment of Lin-Manuel Miranda against protesting residents in the Storyliving residential neighborhood https://t.co/jV6wE5GEl7
— dilukha 🌟 (@nyaalgebra) February 16, 2022
