No one ever tells you that being a theme park fan carries the risk of becoming hyper-invested in the outcome of city council votes about zoning.

This week, the Anaheim City Council approved the first of two votes that, if successful, will allow the Disneyland Resort to undergo a major expansion — a project that was first pitched several years ago under the name “Disneyland Forward.” The vote was, surprisingly, unanimous, which is a good sign that this initiative could end up going all the way.

Now, when it comes to the future of the Disney Parks, I tend to subscribe to the “I’ll believe it when I see it” view. Any unqualified excitement that my past self might have taken from news like this dried up with the company’s growing tendency to overpromise and underdeliver. But Disneyland Forward still fascinates me for one very big reason: the sheer historical implication of it. Unlike Disney’s land ownings in Florida, which are roughly the size of the city of San Francisco, the Disneyland Resort is, for all intents and purposes, full; virtually every square foot of land that the company owns in Anaheim is in use. Currently, a fair amount of that land is being used for parking, which the Disneyland Forward proposal seeks to change, aided by the construction of a new, off-site parking structure. But if and when Disneyland Forward finally comes to be, and those last parking lots become entertainment spaces… that’ll be it. Any further attempts to grow the guest-facing areas of the resort would actively hinder Disney on an operational level, necessitating a strict (and permanent) ‘one in, one out’ policy for all subsequent attractions, restaurants, hotels, and retail spaces. Disney’s only hope for true expansion in a post-Disneyland-Forward world would be to buy up a significant chunk of the surrounding properties — something that, if it hasn’t been done by now, one can only assume is effectively impossible.

It should be noted, of course, that Disneyland Forward will likely take decades to come to fruition, if it happens at all. That’s plenty of time for whatever plans Disney might have for the land to change many times over. In fact, it’s a barely concealed secret that the plans we have seen up to this point are little more than a honeypot to entice the city of Anaheim to approve the changes. And considering the finality of this project, I think that’s probably a good thing. Recent developments do give me reason to hope that Walt Disney Imagineering has better days ahead of it, but regardless of their capabilities, current company leadership will no doubt continue to constrain the department with a stifling brand-synergy mandate, one that allows them to do little else but endlessly recreate existing environments from Disney’s film library. That unfortunate fact is why part of me almost hopes Disneyland Forward will stall out. Because, to put it bluntly, Disneyland deserves better than to have its final expansion — its effective last hurrah — be dictated by the 2025 box office.

But that’s just me. What do you all think?

Feel free to use this space to discuss all things theme- and/or amusement park!

Optional Discussion Question(s): I ended up editorializing more than I meant to here, but what would you like to see (or hate to see) as an eventual part of Disneyland Forward? For those who don’t follow Disneyland, what would you like to see (or hate to see) turn up Beyond Big Thunder Mountain over in Florida? For those who don’t follow Disney at all, what’s still missing from the Universal Parks (thankfully or otherwise)? And finally, for those who don’t like Universal either… how about that Knott’s Berry Farm, huh?