Polk Law Blog

Thanks to the News Chief for pointing out that the Florida Cabinet was meeting to discuss Legoland today.

The Cabinet’s agenda and agenda packets are online. The packet for today’s meeting includes documents from the Internal Improvement Trust Fund with details on Legoland. (It starts on page 4.) Among the more interesting things revealed:

1. Legoland would like to use 2 acres of the existing historic gardens as part of the footprint for their “Miniland” attraction. Polk County officials have apparently expressed no objection to this.

2. Apparently Legoland is planning to have ski shows. From the packet:

Despite the fact that ski-shows are not typically part of Legoland theme parks, Merlin Entertainments has indicated that it understands the importance and significance of the shows to the community and has agreed to incorporate them into its plans…

Merlin Entertainments is requesting a five-year sovereignty submerged land private exclusive easement, with an automatic five-year renewal. The renewal is subject to Merlin Entertainments being in compliance with the easement. The easement contains approximately 665,126 square feet for ski-show activities and the mooring of ski-show vessels and cruise boats at an existing commercial facility in conjunction with an upland theme park. Also, included in the easement area will be the existing docking structures, ski jumps, floating tire barrier and the Florida pool. Merlin Entertainments has explained that eventually additional structures will be placed within the easement area as part of its ski shows.

I explained the manner in which the park is protected in a previous post. I think the use of the historic gardens for Miniland may technically violate the conservation easement because it would alter the “physical appearance or character of any portion of the Historic Gardens.” However, if neither Polk County nor the State objects, it might be a moot point.