By Brian McBride

Associate Editor

Without much fanfare at its meeting Tuesday, the Kissimmee City Commission approved the annexation of 5.4 acres of land occupied by a cooking grease recycling plant on South John Young Parkway, which had drawn numerous bad odor complaints from both residents and nearby businesses.

But city developmental services officials said matters would be dealt with if any new complaints were to arise.

The commission voted 5-0 on the second and final reading to annex the plant, 1745 S. John Young Parkway, after Affordable Bio Feedstocks Partners, the plant’s operator, had applied for annexation. Nobody addressed the issue during the public hearing and the commission approved it without comment.

While under Osceola County jurisdiction, residents and nearby businesses had complained of bad odors coming from the plant. But City Planner Lucie Ghioto said if the municipality received any new complaints, code enforcement would go out to the plant to see if any violations were occurring.

“If that was the case, it would be in violation of the nuisance ordinance and steps would be taken accordingly,” Ghioto said.

The city's nuisance ordinance deals with such complaints such as smell, noise, vibrations or dust.

The plant, while operating in the unincorporated area, was in violation of county code because the water purification and bio-diesel processing going on there was not allowed under the property’s conditional use, which was approved to allow private bulk fuel storage and refueling. The plant, because it was out of compliance with the conditional use, was for a time accruing a county fine of $200 per day.

In an attempt to resolve issues surrounding the county conditional use and possible annexation, company officials met with the city and county staff to determine the best course of action for correcting the problem. Similar to the information commissioners received at its May 24 meeting, information provided for the commission meeting Tuesday, the functions of the plant had been “greatly reduced from what was originally proposed” and a new conditional use and site plan are to be submitted to the city in order to “ensure all necessary onsite improvements are constructed to support the brown grease recycling.”

City officials said the Florida Department of Environmental Protection had investigated the smell complaints but that it found the plant to be in compliance with state regulations.

At a May 24 commission meeting, Bill Freeman, representing the plant operator at the commission meeting, said the company has added deodorizers into its operation and has closed the top of a boiler to reduce the odors escaping.

“We'll handle it just like any other code enforcement complaint,” said City Manager Mike Steigerwald on any possible future nuisance concerns.