When Disneyland or Disneyworld decides to build a new ride or a new castle, do they have to go to the County and pull a building permit for that?

I’m thinking yes. I believe Disney World crosses two counties, and I assume it does need city or county approval for development, and also state approval for compliance with state level water management.

I guess possibly it’s its own city? That gets tricky. Interesting questing. I don’t think it is. I think the addresses of the property are listed as the city they are in and not the city of Disney World. To ponder more, my address is The Villages, but my taxes are paid into Fruitland Park, and my permitting is done by Fruitland Park. The Villages crosses 3 counties, but we all have The Villages city address.

However, like The Villages, I’m assuming Disney pays a lot to local and state politicians.

A rather intriguing question. A Web search turned up this. Check item 5. Disneyland Florida is its own city, a company town in the most literal sense. The article says that the city’s governing board of supervisors are all currently company employees, though it does not say how the board of supervisors is selected.

I would guess that there is considerable informal discussion with the board before any building request is officially presented.

^^DisneyLand is in California

Thanks for the correction, though the question did also mention Disney World also, so my effort was not in vain.

If you want to know more about permitting, check out this site for the town of Reedy Creek. Link . The site only mentions EPCOT theme park, leaving one to wonder what the deal is with the others, notably the Magic Kingdom.

This is kind of interesting too. It’s the Wikipedia page for Bay Lake. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Lake,_Florida

Yes.
Amusingly, the County refused the design for the Matterhorn, because structures of that kind could only be sports arenas, so Disney placed a basketball court in the bottom of it.