Kissimmee Main Street looks to the future

A Kissimmee Main Street town hall meeting held last week featured discussions of crime in the downtown area, the climate for new businesses, and plans for future development along Broadway and Main Streets — but not about a proposed energy manufacturing plant proposed by the county south of the city.

Several audience members raised concerns over a new hydrogen and lithium ion battery manufacturing plant being proposed off Pleasant Hill Road. But after listening politely, City officials were quick to point out the proposed plant was not within the limits or control of the City of Kissimmee and they had no ability to make any changes, instead urging the audience to contact their county and state officials about it.

Panelists included City Manager Mike Steigerwald, retiring Police Chief Jeff O’Dell, and local business owner Aida Sanchez.

Among the night’s discussion topics were a brief overview of the city’s new noise ordinance and it’s implementation. The ordinance more explicitly sets measurement of noise under the statute, and perhaps most importantly allows for citations to be issued for noise violations resulting in fines. Previously, police could give warnings, but if the noise problems continued their only alternative was to make an arrest. While arrest is still possible, citations resulting in fines from $50 to $500 now offer officials an in-between remedy that is more useful.

Crime generated its share of discussion, and O’Dell was quick to point out that ,despite perceptions to the contrary, and a recent stretch of three murders in only a few days, crime is down in the City of Kissimmee, and has been going down year over after year for several years now, including violent crimes. He noted they numbered 387 in 2020, 362 in 2021 and 354 last year. There have been 71 violent crimes through the first third of 2023.

O’Dell said he does worry about an increase with the new concealed carry gun law, and said KPD is working hard to address officer safety concerns given the law.

“There are a lot of guns out there. People have guns and I fear it’s only going to get worse with this, and — I can say it because I’m getting ready to retire — idiotic legislature that is going through with this permitless carry,” he said. “I know there’s probably people on both sides of the aisle. I only care about our cops, and that they’re safe. It makes their job harder.”

Sanchez, a new Kissimmeee business owner, said she and her husband “came by chance but stayed by choice” after finding it a wonderful place to do business. Concerns raised about finding affordable new business space in the area were that there should soon be new incubator business space in the downtown.

The new owner of Diane’s Tea Room on Broadway said she felt a bit targeted by code enforcement when she bought an active business and immediately had to close to find financing to perform mandatory unexpected upgrades. City officials were familiar with the problem and were sympathetic, offering some possible solutions through city grants. Diane’s Tea Room is now again open.

Steigerwald outlined present progress on several new housing projects being built in Kissimmee proper, including the Mosaic project across from the Lakefront, which he says is almost ready to lease, as well as the former Beaumont Middle School project which will break ground today, providing a mixture of residential, retail and office space.

These are part of a longer-term growth plan for the downtown area that began over a decade ago, with the idean of downtown development. Back then, Steigerwald recounted, there were hardly any restaurants serving dinner or bars in the downtown.

“They used to say that the sidewalks in the downtown rolled up at 5 o’clock,” he said, contrasting that to today with a number of restaurants and entertainment establishments open well into the evening. There are also plans to renovate the 30-year-old Civic Center in the downtown, as well as attracting a hotel to the downtown to allow for more conferences and conventions.

Steigerwald outlined proposed changes to intersections on Broadway that will slow down traffic and make it more pedestrian friendly, “So it becomes more of a destination roadway instead of a through street for people to get from point A to Point B.”

When questioned about traffic concerns, he said that traffic wasn’t much of a problem in the downtown itself, but was a problem in getting to and from the downtown. Much of that, he said, is unfortunately out of the control of the City of Kissimmee, which is limited by its boundaries. He also expressed frustration over local control of development being taken away by the state, resulting in housing development projects being green-lighted without infrastructure being put in place to handle the growth.