Treehouse Villas - any news??

[ebenmax]

Has anyone heard anymore about the renovation of the Treehouse Villas and their potential addition to DVC?

Just wondering. . .

Thanks -

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I was told on a "Keys to the Kingdom" tour a couple of years ago that these facilities wouldn't pass the new "Americans with disabilities Act" and that they were taken out of public service for this reason. I was further told that they are now being used to house students working in the Disney College Program year-round.

Maybe you guys know something I don't. I'm just passing along what I was told (of which 100% truth is part of the premise to answers to questions asked on the KTTKT so long as said answers don't violate company privacy rules).

I hope you're right. They're really kool and would be a nice addition to the fold with a little work.

-bob

 

[Chuck S]

There were plans filed to redo the treehouses, with a smaller land footprint to work around the issues with the enviroment and to make some units ADA compliant. As far as them being DVC, nothing has been firmed up, and probably can't be, until the renovations are almost completed. I don't believe they've even started renovation yet...and given the economy right now...it may be on hold.

 

[disneynutz]

We were at WDW the first week in April. The Tree house site now has construction fences installed and there were survey markers in place. We noticed construction trucks coming and going, but from the water, we couldn't see any real work being done. Time will tell.

 

[tjkraz]

The villa structures themselves are bring built off-site by a company that deals in manufactured homes. So it's just a question of doing the demolition and ground prep work for the new structures, then trucking-in the buildings.

These manufactured home companies churn out a handful of units each day, so it's mostly a question of how quickly Disney wants to get it done. Since the treehouses are largely isolated, they could theoretically complete them in small sections and have the first units open in well under a year.

As to whether they will be DVCs or not, no new information on that front. Disney's only comment is something along the lines of "we have nothing to announce at this time." (Sound familiar, Contemporary fans? )

 

[Monorail Purple&Gold]

As far as the protected wetlands aspect, with the new plans for the buildings the Imagineers are actually "adding to the wetlands" because each building's footprint will occupy less square footage than the original buildings, hence "adding" more square footage to the wetlands.

With ADA, I believe accessibility for handicapped individuals (i.e. stairs only w/ no ramps to second floor) were at issue as well.

I believe the new buildings will not have living quarters in the lower level, the top floor has been re-situated to accomodate all the living quarters.

 

[SueM in MN]

I was told on a "Keys to the Kingdom" tour a couple of years ago that these facilities wouldn't pass the new "Americans with disabilities Act" and that they were taken out of public service for this reason.

With ADA, I believe accessibility for handicapped individuals (i.e. stairs only w/ no ramps to second floor) were at issue as well.

The ADA thing gets brought up each time the Treehouses are mentioned, but that is not correct.
If all of them needed to be made accessible, it might be true, but..........
I wrote a long post in several of the other Treehouse threads, but the gist of it is that with about 50 Treehouses, only a few would have to be made accessible. It would be relatively easy to add either ramps or lifts to several of them. The other things (raised seat toilets, a 3 foot 'wheelchair driving path' and a roll in shower) would need some re-division of space, but also would not be that difficult.
Some posters in the past have even suggested that 2 or 3 of the Treehouses were already renovated like that for use by the College program CMs.

PS- If everything that was not handicapped accessible was taken out of service, there would be a lot of closed things - including Dumbo, POC and Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse at MK.

 

[cincinmouse]

I will be at SSR next week and plan to see if anything is going on in the Treehouse area. I will report back if there is anything interesting.