We’ve all been there right? You get back from a nice vacation at Disneyland or Walt Disney World and you go through a sort of strange withdrawal. You wish you could be back in the parks. You wish you could just live there and never leave. Well, someday, you might actually be able to do that, as The Walt Disney Company has revealed plans to build its first “Storyliving by Disney” community, a planned community for Disney fans to live in that promises to be built with the same Disney magic as the theme parks and other experiences.
The first Storyliving community will be called Cotino and will be built on 618 acres in Rancho Mirage, CA, an area near Palm Springs, which is where Walt Disney himself would go to escape. This makes it the perfect place for people who want to live in a place designed by Disney. The design of the place sounds amazing as the development will surround a 24-acre oasis including a crystal clear lagoon. A variety of housing units from estates to condos will be available. Housing will be available to all though one area will be dedicated to residents 55 and over, so if you want to retire to a Disney community, that’s an option.
In addition to the homes themselves, a variety of curated experiences are also being promised. Not unlike other planned communities residents will be able to take advantage of special entertainment, cooking classes and wellness programs among other things.
There will also be a mixed-use district that will offer shopping and dining and a beachfront hotel for guests who just want to visit.
Walt Disney Imagineering will be working directly with the developers of these projects, so the building of a Storyliving community certainly sounds a lot like building a theme park, a cruise ship or a hotel. Each development will have its own theme inspired by the surrounding area. Disney builds story into everything it does. One can only imagine what Imagineers will be able to accomplish with this.
Needless to say if you’re a serious Disney fan, this sounds like just the ticket. Living in a place like this would give any Disney fan a truly unique experience and being able to live in a place that was designed by Imagineers is by itself an exciting idea. And you know you have something in common with all your neighbors because everybody there is going to be an obviously dedicated Disney fan.
This certainly isn’t the first time that Disney has tried to create something unique in the residential space. Walt Disney’s original plans for Disney World included his Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow, EPCOT. It was to be a fully functional, self-sustaining city. Unfortunately, those plans died with Walt and while some elements of Epcot survived in the theme park that bears the name, the company never found a way to move forward. The plan likely would have had a lot of trouble being successful anyway.
In the 1990s The Walt Disney Company developed the city of Celebration, Florida, a sort of spiritual successor to the Epcot idea, but after the city was developed Disney divested itself of the area and returned the land to the state of Florida.
Golden Oak currently exists within the boundaries of Walt Disney World. The residential community there is very upscale. While I’m sure the homes in these Storyliving communities won’t be cheap, it seems that the plan is to be able to bring in a more diverse community and built at least somewhat more affordable housing.
So would you like to live in a Storyliving community? While the area in Rancho Mirage is the first, it’s clear that Disney plans to build many of these over the next several years. If you like you might be able to live the Disney lifestyle 24 hours a day very soon. Ex
