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Meetings · Kissimmee

Kissimmee Planning Advisory Board — February 5, 2025 minutes

City of Kissimmee Planning Advisory Board — February 5, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 of 7 members present) Duration: 6:00 PM – 6:28 PM (28 minutes) Location: Kissimmee City Hall, Commission Chambers, 101 Church Street

Attendance

  • Present: Chairman Robert Bussiere, Board Member Robert Spalding, Board Member Diana Marrero-Pinto, Board Member Alex Alemi, Board Member Aaron Sabino
  • Absent: Board Member Rebeca Marin, Board Member Yolanda Bernard
  • Staff Present: Brenda Ryan (Planning Manager), Kalanit Oded (Assistant City Attorney), Cristian Arias (Senior Planner), John Rabon (Senior Planner), Ryan Altizer (Planner II), Kayla Smith (Administrative Assistant II)

Prior minutes approved: October 16, 2024 PAB meeting minutes (5-0) and November 6, 2024 PAB workshop minutes (5-0). Both motions moved by Spalding, seconded by Alemi.

Agenda Items

Item 5.A: CU-24-0012 — UCP Charter School Conditional Use with Site Specific Redevelopment Plan

  • Type: Conditional Use with Site Specific Redevelopment Plan
  • Case Number: CU-24-0012
  • Location: 200 W. Vine Street
  • Applicant: UCP of Central Florida — Ken Jacob, 4780 Data Court; engineer of record KPM Franklin, John Kelly, 222 Church Street
  • Request: Establish a new specialized charter school serving approximately 326 students, described by staff as a state-of-the-art educational and pediatric therapy facility for students with and without disabilities.
  • Current Zoning: Mixed-Use Center (T5-M), Downtown and Vine Street Form-Based Code; Future Land Use Mixed Use – Downtown (MU-D), Medical Campus sub-area
  • Proposed Zoning: No change
  • Acreage: approximately 8.72 acres
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve with 10 conditions
  • Action: Approved with conditions (recorded as "Motion to Approve w/Conditions Passed"). The PAB is the City's final decision-making body on Conditional Use Permits with Site Plans — see Raw Notes.
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Spalding, seconded Marrero-Pinto)
  • Conditions: (1) Conditional Use approval subject to City Commission review and approval of a Developer's Agreement, prior to Site Development Plan approval, for deviations to Form-Based Code standards under LDC § 14-5-14(A) "projects of significance to the City"; (2) vehicular access to Union Street prohibited and to be removed from the plan; (3) street wall with landscaping required at parking areas visible from Oak Street per § 14-5-11(F); (4) Final Plat required prior to issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy; (5) chain link fences prohibited, to be replaced with wrought iron per § 14-5-11(F)(5); (6) retention pond to be integrated into site design as a site amenity per § 14-5-12(B)(5); (7) no transportation vans or bus services permitted — future van or bus service requires a Site Plan revision addressing parking and circulation; (8) stacking of vehicles on Oak Street prohibited, with the City reserving authority to require intermediate changes and a revised parking and circulation plan if drop-off congestion occurs; (9) solid 6-foot block wall along the eastern boundary adjacent to single-family residential, with one tree of at least 2.5-inch caliper every 15 linear feet, alternating large and medium canopy, evergreen species for a year-round continuous screen; (10) any modification or reconfiguration of building, parking lot, or site improvements with adverse impact requires a Site Plan revision returning to the PAB.
  • Notable Discussion: Arias stated for the record that the school would serve approximately 326 students. Jacob said UCP has operated in Central Florida for over 70 years, currently runs Plaza Del Sol in Kissimmee, and that the campus population is 70% children with a disability under an inclusion policy admitting non-disabled students. Kelly stated KPM Franklin accepted all staff conditions. The minutes record "Discussion ensued regarding UCP project" without further detail.

Item 5.B: Ordinance #25-02 / ZMA-23-0005 — Grissom Lane Zoning Map Amendment

  • Type: Rezoning (Zoning Map Amendment)
  • Case Number: ZMA-23-0005 / Proposed Ordinance #25-02
  • Location: Grissom Lane
  • Applicant: City of Kissimmee (city-initiated)
  • Request: Amend the Zoning Map designation from Mixed-Use Urban Corridor (T5-U) to Industrial Business (IB).
  • Current Zoning: Mixed-Use Urban Corridor (T5-U)
  • Proposed Zoning: Industrial Business (IB)
  • Acreage: approximately 3.69 acres
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve
  • Action: Recommended for approval
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Spalding, seconded Marrero-Pinto)
  • Conditions: None
  • Notable Discussion: Ryan explained the rezoning conforms the Zoning Map to a Future Land Use change already completed: the Industrial (IN) Future Land Use designation was established under LUPA-24-0001, recommended for approval by the PAB on May 15, 2024 and given final approval by the City Commission on June 18, 2024. Staff cited compliance with Comprehensive Plan FLU Policy 1.2.4.3 (Industrial, up to 0.50 FAR), LDC § 14-3-27 (amendment procedure and criteria), and LDC § 14-4-4(N) (Industrial Business district). Planning staff and the board discussed current zoning and future land use within city limits generally.

Public Hearings Summary

  • Number of speakers: 2 — both applicant-side (Ken Jacob for UCP of Central Florida; John Kelly for KPM Franklin). Both items were noticed public hearings.
  • General sentiment: No opposition recorded on either item.
  • Key concerns: None raised by members of the public. Neither item drew a non-applicant speaker.

Key Signals

  • A 326-student specialized school lands inside the downtown Medical Campus sub-area, on 8.72 acres at 200 W. Vine Street. The parcel carries Mixed Use – Downtown future land use, where the adopted sub-area allows up to 40 dwelling units per acre and 6.0 FAR — the densest entitlement envelope in Kissimmee. Putting an institutional campus on it consumes a block of the city's highest-intensity redevelopment capacity for a use that generates no residential units. Anyone tracking downtown housing supply should note which parcels are being absorbed by non-residential uses inside the form-based code area.

  • The board recommended approval, but the real approval gate is a Developer's Agreement at the City Commission. Condition 1 conditions the entire Conditional Use on Commission approval of a Developer's Agreement for deviations to Form-Based Code standards, invoked under LDC § 14-5-14(A) for "projects of significance to the City." That clause is the pressure-release valve in Kissimmee's form-based code: projects large enough to matter negotiate their way out of the dimensional standards at the Commission table rather than meeting them at the board table. The PAB vote is advisory; the deviations are where the terms actually get set.

  • The conditions read as a neighborhood-protection package against an eastern single-family edge. Six-foot solid block wall, evergreen canopy trees every 15 feet, no Union Street access, no stacking on Oak Street, and a flat prohibition on transportation vans or bus services without a new site plan review. A school that cannot run buses is a school whose entire student load arrives by private car — and the board wrote itself a return trip if drop-off congestion materializes.

  • Grissom Lane completes a two-step industrial conversion that started in May 2024. The Future Land Use went Industrial in June 2024; the zoning map caught up eight months later. 3.69 acres moved out of the Mixed-Use Urban Corridor category and into Industrial Business. In a city where the form-based code is pushing corridors toward mixed use, land moving the other direction — toward industrial — is the exception worth tracking.

  • This was the board's first meeting with business since November 6, 2024. The minutes approved at this meeting were from October 16 and November 6, 2024. The December 18, January 2, and January 15 meetings were all cancelled. Kissimmee's Planning Advisory Board is nominally a twice-monthly body; in practice the first quarter of 2025 produced one meeting in ten weeks.

Raw Notes

  • Source provenance: minutes PDF published to CivicClerk as file 8188 ("02.05.2025 PAB Minutes") under agenda 1761, event 2066. The document is headed "MEETING ACTIONS" rather than "MEETING MINUTES" — Kissimmee's PAB record format varies between the two headings across the period.
  • The board meets in Commission Chambers at 101 Church Street, Kissimmee 34741. Regular start time 6:00 PM.
  • Full board is seven members. Two vacant-equivalent absences (Marin, Bernard) still left a working quorum.
  • Item 5.B's ordinance caption as printed contains an OCR-visible typo ("CONELICT" for "CONFLICT") in the minutes; the agenda prints it correctly.
  • Under DISCUSSION, staff and board discussed confirming a spring date for the second session of the Planning Advisory Board workshops. No date was fixed on the record.
  • Adjournment 6:28 PM on a 5-0 motion (moved Spalding, seconded Marrero-Pinto). Signed by the Board Chairman.
  • Board authority note: the Deputy City Attorney's June 4, 2025 board training states that "the Planning Advisory Board (PAB) is, despite its name, not purely advisory" and that the PAB "is the final decision-making body for the City of Kissimmee on applications including Conditional Use Permits with Site Plans and True Works of Art." Staff nonetheless present conditional-use items as "a recommendation for approval," and Condition 1 here routes the project to the City Commission for a Developer's Agreement. The board's motion language is "Approve w/Conditions," not "recommend."
  • Kissimmee's charter school item cites the Downtown Kissimmee Community Redevelopment Area Plan Update (September 2012) and its Strategic Investment Map as the controlling sub-area guidance.

Connected records

1 connected record

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