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Meetings · Kissimmee

Kissimmee Planning Advisory Board — May 7, 2025 minutes

City of Kissimmee Planning Advisory Board — May 7, 2025

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (5 of 7 members present, one arriving late) Duration: 6:10 PM – 6:37 PM (27 minutes) Location: Kissimmee City Hall, Commission Chambers, 101 Church Street

Attendance

  • Present: Chairman Robert Bussiere, Board Member Diana Marrero-Pinto, Board Member Alex Alemi, Board Member Rebeca Marin, Board Member Aaron Sabino (arrived 6:20 PM)
  • Absent: Board Member Yolanda Bernard, Board Member Robert Spalding
  • Staff Present: Brenda Ryan (Planning Manager), Ryan Altizer (Senior Planner), Kalanit Oded (Deputy City Attorney), Ramon Senorans (Airfield Manager), Shaun Germolus (Airport Director), Kayla Smith (Administrative Assistant II)

Prior minutes approved: March 19, 2025 PAB minutes, recorded as 3-0 with one abstention (moved Marrero-Pinto, seconded Marin). The ayes are Marrero-Pinto, Alemi and Marin; the minutes do not name the abstaining member. Bussiere was the only other member seated at that point — Sabino had not yet arrived — and Bussiere was absent from the March 19 meeting.

Agenda Items

Item 5.A: PUD-25-0001 — Kissimmee Gateway Airport Commerce Park Mixed-Use PUD Amendment

  • Type: PUD Amendment (Mixed-Use Planned Unit Development)
  • Case Number: PUD-25-0001
  • Location: 2117 Mabbette Street — approximately 22 acres across 7 parcels, the former Dyer Thacker Commerce Park PUD
  • Applicant: City of Kissimmee — the land is City-owned; supported at the table by Airport Director Shaun Germolus and Airfield Manager Ramon Senorans
  • Request: Amend the Mixed-Use PUD to add and clarify permitted uses, consolidating the previous Dyer Thacker Commerce Park use list into a single Gateway Airport Commerce Park MUPUD in support of the Kissimmee Gateway Airport Master Plan Update. Added and clarified uses include hotels and motels, dormitories, colleges and universities.
  • Current Zoning: Mixed-Use Planned Unit Development (MUPUD); Future Land Use Airport Expansion (AE), intensity up to 0.50 FAR
  • Proposed Zoning: MUPUD, amended
  • Acreage: approximately 22 acres
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve
  • Action: Recommended for approval
  • Vote: 5-0 (moved Alemi, seconded Marrero-Pinto)
  • Conditions: None recorded
  • Notable Discussion: Ryan stated that the amendment's policies, schedules and phasing of improvements are all dependent on funding and "can be modified to facilitate the environmental, social, and aviation interests of the community." Staff cited Comprehensive Plan FLU Policy 1.2.4.2 (Airport Expansion), Transportation Element Policy 2.4.1.2 (consistency with the Airport Master Plan), LDC § 14-3-27(G)(2) (deviations from a previously approved PUD conceptual plan require City Commission approval), and LDC § 14-4-8(D) (MUPUD district). Planning staff and the board discussed that the land is City-owned, traffic flow around the airport, and the potential for future hotels within the city.

Item 5.B: ZMA-25-0001 / Ordinance No. 25-03 — Armstrong Rezoning

  • Type: Rezoning (Zoning Map Amendment)
  • Case Number: ZMA-25-0001 / Proposed Ordinance No. 25-03
  • Location: Parcel ID 19-25-29-00U0-0014-0000
  • Applicant: [not available — the minutes do not name an applicant or representative; the case is titled "Armstrong Rezoning"]
  • 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); Future Land Use Mixed-Use Vine (MU-V)
  • Proposed Zoning: Industrial Business (IB)
  • Acreage: approximately 2.69 acres
  • Staff Recommendation: Approve
  • Action: Recommended for approval
  • Vote: 4-1 — AYE: Bussiere, Marrero-Pinto, Sabino, Marin. NAY: Alemi. (moved Marrero-Pinto, seconded Marin)
  • Conditions: None
  • Notable Discussion: Altizer framed the rezoning against the Mixed-Use Vine future land use goal of providing "diverse housing options, retail and light industrial/flex office space and professional office," and against the Industrial Business district's purpose of permitting industrial development where proximity to residential or commercial zones makes it desirable to limit the manner and extent of operations. Staff cited FLU Policy 1.2.9.3 (Vine Street Mixed-Use, predicated on the City's adopted multimodal transportation strategy promoting walking, biking, shorter auto trips and transit), LDC § 14-3-27 and LDC § 14-4-4(N). The minutes record that "Planning Staff and the Board discussed the rationale behind the city's need to change the zoning and how the change aligns with and impacts the Comprehensive Plan." No reason for Alemi's dissent is recorded.

Public Hearings Summary

  • Number of speakers: 0 — both items were noticed public hearings; no applicant representatives or members of the public are recorded as speaking.
  • General sentiment: No public opposition recorded.
  • Key concerns: None raised by the public. The only recorded dissent came from the dais.

Key Signals

  • The City opened its own airport land to hotels, dormitories, colleges and universities on a 5-0 vote. PUD-25-0001 consolidates 22 City-owned acres at 2117 Mabbette Street into the Gateway Airport Commerce Park MUPUD and adds lodging and institutional uses to the permitted list. The board discussed "the potential for future hotels within the city" in the same breath. Kissimmee's airport district is being re-entitled as a mixed hospitality-and-education campus, not just an aviation industrial park — and because the land is City-owned, the City controls both the entitlement and the disposition.

  • The first recorded dissent of the coverage period: Alemi voted no on converting Vine Street corridor land to industrial. ZMA-25-0001 moved 2.69 acres from Mixed-Use Urban Corridor to Industrial Business inside a future land use category whose stated purpose is walkability, transit and mixed-use villages. Staff argued compliance; Alemi voted against. Combined with the 3.69-acre Grissom Lane conversion in February, Kissimmee moved more than six acres out of mixed-use corridor zoning and into industrial in three months, and the pattern drew its first objection here.

  • Two rezonings in one quarter both run the same direction — away from the Vine Street mixed-use vision. February's Grissom Lane and May's Armstrong parcel both went T5-U to IB. The adopted plan says the corridor becomes urban villages; the applications say the corridor becomes industrial and flex space. When the map amendments consistently contradict the plan's stated intent, the plan is the thing that is out of date.

  • The airport's own leadership sat at the staff table. Airport Director Shaun Germolus and Airfield Manager Ramon Senorans attended as staff, not as applicants, for a City-initiated amendment on City-owned land. The Kissimmee Gateway Airport Master Plan Update is driving the entitlement; the PAB is ratifying it. Anyone tracking hotel or student-housing supply near the airport should read the Master Plan, not the zoning docket.

  • Quorum arrived one member at a time. The meeting was called to order at 6:10 PM with four members; Sabino arrived at 6:20 PM. The March 19 minutes passed 3-0 with an unnamed abstention. Kissimmee's board is doing consequential entitlement work at the thin edge of its own quorum.

Raw Notes

  • Source provenance: minutes PDF published to CivicClerk as file 8295 ("05.07.2025 PAB Minutes") under agenda 1928, event 2248. The published PDF's pages are out of sequence — the extracted page 2 carries Item 5.B's staff analysis and vote, page 3 carries the remainder of Item 5.A plus Item 5.B's introduction. The item order above follows the agenda (5.A airport PUD, 5.B Armstrong rezoning) and the internal logic of the text, not the PDF page order.
  • The agenda packet for this meeting was published in a revised version (CivicClerk file 8259, "05.07.2025 PAB Agenda Packet Revised").
  • Dyer Thacker Commerce Park is the prior PUD name for the 22-acre airport commerce parcel; the amendment renames and consolidates it as Kissimmee Gateway Airport Commerce Park.
  • LDC § 14-3-27(G)(2) is the operative clause: deviations from a previously approved PUD conceptual plan require City Commission approval, so the PAB recommendation here is one step in a two-step process.
  • The March 19 minutes item is labeled "Workshop" on this agenda; the March 19 record is a regular meeting.
  • Adjournment 6:37 PM on a 5-0 motion (moved Alemi, seconded Marrero-Pinto). Signed by the Board Chairman.

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