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08 February 2008
Posted in
Saratoga Springs News
Editor's Note: On September 16, 2008 Disney Vacation Club confirmed that the Treehouse Villas WILL be added to Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa. This story was originally written in February 2008 when we first became aware that the Treehouse Villas would be rebuilt. Some elements of the story below have been updated to reflect known details on the new DVC project. Click to view complete Treehouse Villas Fact Sheet.
Several days ago we reported that the South Florida Water Management District had approved an application filed by the Reedy Creek Improvement District to perform some sort of refurbishment to the old Treehouse Villas. Since that first report a great deal of additional information has come to light--information which confirms that Disney has come up with a plan to completely rebuild these structures.
The Treehouse Villas originally opened in 1975. The project was just one of a number of developments in the area now occupied by Saratoga Springs Resort. The sixty Treehouse Villas were all two-story structures with a single bedroom and laundry facilities on the first floor, and two additional bedrooms, kitchen and living area on the second floor. The treehouses still exist today in their original configuration. |
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Following the post-9/11 downturn in the tourism industry, Disney closed the Treehouse Villas to the general public. For much of the last six years they have been used as private residences for participants in Disney's International and College Programs.
For additional information on the history of the Treehouse Villas, check out this wonderful article at JimHillMedia.com written by Scott Liljenquist of Mouseketrips.com.On the surface it would seem only natural for Disney to use this land for further expansion of Saratoga Springs, however Disney's hands were seemingly tied by two pieces of legislation: The Warren S. Henderson Wetlands Protection Act of 1984 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The treehouses reside on a piece of land which has been designated protected wetlands. This designation seemingly allowed Disney the ability to renovate the Treehouses, but any additional construction on the protected land is prohibited. The situation is then complicated by the ADA, given that the two-story Treehouses do not meet current ADA accessibility guidelines. As structures built well before the Americans with Disabilities Act, the treehouses are not obligated to comply with the guidelines. But new construction could mandate ADA compliance.
Well, it appears Disney may have found a way to overcome these hurdles.On the morning of February 5th we received a tip that Disney had received approval to peform some sort of renovation or replacement of the Treehouse Villas. Following up on our lead, a poster on another message board located the application filed with SFWMD on December 24, 2007.
Upon reviewing this permit, Disney's intentions couldn't be more clear:
"Disney is proposing to dismantle & remove the existing 'Treehouse' units and replace them with new structures."So how was Disney able to overcome these obstacles and gain approval to rebuild the treehouses? Quite ingeniously, it would seem. Take a look at this image from the December 24 application:
The image on the right is a side elevation of the original treehouse. On the left is a side elevation of the redesigned treehouse. We have shaded red the ground floor "footprint" of the two structures. Note how the redesigned treehouse has a lot less physical structure touching the ground? That was the key to obtaining approval for this project. As stated in the application:
Because the footprint of the existing structures lie within the 100yr flood plain, the proposed structures that will have a foot print that is smaller than the existing footprint thereby decreasing the current floodplain encroachment.
By reducing the treehouse footprint from 340 square feet to just 84 square feet, from a legal standpoint Disney is actually adding to the wetlands--a move that is certainly permissable under a wetlands protection act.
The new treehouses will effectively have no ground floor. The elevated second floor has been enlarged and reconfigured to accommodate the same three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and living room. As luck would have it, the permit application also included a floorplan for the redesigned villa. Click on the thumbnail below for a larger image.
We've made some modifications to the permit image to better illustrate the villa layout. The three bedrooms are displayed in Yellow (queen bed master), Blue (queen bed) and Green (bunk beds.) The two bathrooms are shown in Pink and Orange. The kitchen has been shaded Brown and the laundry room Purple. The rest of the unit features a living area with sofa, chairs and flat-panel TV, a dining table and the adjacent patio.
With a two Queen-sized beds and a set of bunk beds, the redesigned treehouses parallel the sleeping accommodations of current DVC Two Bedroom Villas. Although not displayed in this layout, there appears to be adequate space in the living room for a queen-sized sleeper sofa and a twin sleeper chair for a maximum occupancy of 9 individuals.So the question remains as to whether DVC will have any involvement in the new Treehouses. Could they be rolled-up in Saratoga Springs and sold as additional DVC Villas? As it turns out, they may already BE part of Saratoga Springs...at least from a legal standpoint. Take a look at this disclosure document given to DVC owners at Saratoga Springs:
It seems that as far back as 2004, the Treehouse Villas were placed within the boundary of Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort.
Nevertheless, there are still a number of hurdles to be overcome if these new structures are to be added to the Disney Vacation Club. For instance, if the treehouses are both rebuilt AND reclassified as Saratoga Springs Condominiums, Disney is likely to lose any grandfathered exclusions from the 1990 ADA rules. There are some logistical concerns regarding the Treehouses' moderate distance from the rest of Saratoga Springs. Previously guests were able to rent golf carts to move around the Disney Institute grounds--a solution which may not be practical now that the area has been reinvented as Saratoga Springs. And let's not forget all of the other properties DVC currently has in development--Animal Kingdom Villas, Grand Californian, the Hawaii project and perhaps even the Contemporary Resort.At least one Disney source we spoke with claims that DVC is involved in this project--to what extent remains to be seen.
Just curious if THV could be a DVC resort all by itself. I know it will only have 60 units and be impossible for non owners to get in there, but the idea of it being it\'s own resort intrigues me. I could see me possible doing an addon there if this happened.
I could see DVD playing this a couple of ways, including selling THV as a stand-alone resort and playing off its small size as a \"boutique\" offering (though 60 units is still larger than GCV has been announced to be), or possibly adding it to either OKW or SSR as additional units to maintain sales and resale motivation for those large membership bases.
The distinction I would made is that the first story (DVC is selling the 18th building at SSR) is fact while any connection between SSR and the Treehouses is just rumor or speculation. Right now anyone considering a SSR purchase or add-on should proceed under the assumption that they have only a few months to do so. If the Treehouses are confirmed to be joining SSR, that position would obviously change.
Consider this line of reasoning. The disclosure document I posted (copy of treehouse map) was actually given to SSR owners at the time of purchase. While there was no guarantee of DVC villas being placed on that land, if DVC were to make the treehouses a separate resort, one could argue that SSR owners were mislead over the treehouses\' future.
Even if that doesn\'t hold water, can you see any benefits to DVC by making the treehouses a stand-alone? If they were made into a separate resort, point owners would have only one unit size available in their Home. That\'s pretty restrictive. Sell treehouses as SSR points and owners also get access to Studio, One, Two and Three Bedroom Villas at 11 months.
Economies of scale tell us that the dues would likely be high if it\'s a stand-alone. Assumign the treehouses have higher-than-normal expenses, spreading that cost over tens-of-thousands of existing SSR contracts makes the impact negligible.
There\'s also the issue of how to support the villas. The permits indicate that there will be no other new construction in that area--it would probably be prohibited by the wetlands restrictions anyway. So where to guests check-in? Where do they buy a gallon of milk? Out of what location would housekeeping and maintenance staff operate?
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