Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511200120
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE WILLIAMS COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: ORLANDO, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Walt Disney's dreamers are tackling what could be a more formidable challenge: reality.
Today, the company that has made billions marketing Mickey Mouse and the Magic Kingdom will unveil Celebration, a real town in which real people will live, work, shop and play.
The new town will eventually have 8,000 residents, who will settle on 4,900 acres about 15 miles from downtown Orlando, just outside the main gate to Walt Disney World.
To hear the Disney promotions, this real-world town will be just as idyllic as any make-believe set ever constructed by the company.
``A new American town of Fourth of July parades and school bake sales ... spaghetti dinners and fireflies in a jar,'' intones a deep-voiced narrator in a videotape at the Celebration Preview Center.
The sales pitch seems to be connecting with the public. While Celebration today is little more than muddy lots and half-constructed buildings, more than 25,000 people have visited the preview center. A ``meet the builders'' affair last weekend drew 3,000 potential Celebration residents.
The appeal seems to be the Disney image: clean-cut, all-American, orderly, safe.
``I would consider living here,'' said George Flanagan, 60, a Queens, N.Y., retiree who visited the preview center recently. ``It's the Disney name. Everybody believes Disney does things right.
Such comments are music to Disney executives' ears. They are confident their new venture will be a success because they believe the public's appetite for the wholesome surroundings they've created at Disney World is limitless.
``We're using the term `family friendly,''' said Bob Shinn, general manager of Florida real estate development for Disney Development Co. ``There will be porch swings and sidewalks and front yards that you use instead of just look at.''
Disney is clearly pulling out all the stops. Renderings of Celebration seem straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, with quaint gingerbread houses fronting tree-lined streets.
Homes will have a turn-of-the-century feel, with porches and picket fences. Sidewalks will be shaded, the downtown kept small, parks elaborately landscaped.
But the ideal surroundings won't be cheap. While apartments will start at the locally competitive price of $650 a month, town houses will start at $128,000, cottage homes at $180,000.
Urban planners say the town won't be all that different from many other upscale planned communities.
``I know of about 100 other projects like this around the country,'' said Orjan Wetterqvist, who teaches at the University of Florida College of Architecture. ``What they're doing is looking for the baby we tossed out with the bathwater when we moved to suburbia. They're trying to build a neighborhood that feels like a community.''
by CNB