Smaller restaurants could be allowed to sell beer and wine in downtown Kissimmee, after commissioners proposed lowering the number of seats required for a restaurant selling alcohol from 50 to 30.

The decision during Tuesday's workshop came in response to about a dozen informal requests from existing and potential businesses that wouldn’t be able to sell alcohol in the downtown district. Development Director Craig Holland said most of the inquiries into the alcohol regulations came from existing businesses looking for a way to expand their customer base.

“A lot of people see the energy that goes on at Dakin (Avenue) and they’d like to kind of replicate that somewhere else downtown,” he said. “Many of the individuals, in requesting this, see it as a way to weather the economy, at this point.”

Originally, the city allowed the sale of alcohol anywhere there was a counter or table to serve it. The city’s alcohol ordinances tightened in 1981, at which point alcohol sales were allowed only in restaurants with 50 or more seats, with the stipulation that they offer full-course meals.

Since 2008, specialty stores, such as wine or cigar shops and bookstores, have been allowed to sell beer and wine for onsite consumption, but only as a complement to their main product or service. That ordinance in particular has frustrated some potential business owners and has been abused by others, city staff said.

All of the commissioners agreed wholeheartedly that they did not want to allow bars and nightclubs in the downtown area. Some discussion went into whether they should lower the alcohol regulations.

“Is that what we want in downtown Kissimmee?” Commissioner Carlos Irizarry asked. “Is that the kind of standard we’re going to bring, to drop it?”

Mayor Jim Swan said the decision to change the city’s ordinances was not an easy one.

“When you lower the community standards, to me, that’s a very hard pill to swallow. I think it is critical that we get some feedback,” he said, agreeing with Irizarry’s earlier proposal to involve the various organizations representing downtown businesses.

Commissioners Jerry Gemskie and Cheryl Grieb were enthusiastic about potentially allowing more businesses to sell alcohol. Gemskie said he had already talked to some members of the Downtown Business Association who were in favor of the idea.

“They look forward to it. Maybe they think they could feed off of it some way,” Gemskie said.

Grieb suggested that the seat regulation for restaurants be lowered from 50 to 30, with the stipulation that at least two-thirds of the seating had to be inside the establishment. The rest of the commissioners agreed to the compromise.

“As painful as it is, I can live with the 30,” Swan said, also questioning whether the regulation change actually could fill vacant lots downtown. “I don’t think it’s going to fill the empty spaces. I don’t think it’s going to help a thing, but I can live with it.”

The ordinance change, once drafted, will be presented in two public hearings before it goes into effect.

The commissioners also instructed city staff to tweak the ordinance regulating the sale of alcohol in specialty stores, more clearly outlining the products and services that should be sold in complement to the sale of beer and wine.

One new business in particular is in violation of the specialty store alcohol regulations already, Holland said. The Wicked Stepsister opened as a package liquor store, selling glasses of beer and wine as a complement to its primary business. The design plan submitted to the city included display cases for the packages of alcoholic beverages, Holland said.

He said the business now looks a lot different from those designs, with pool tables instead of the cases.

“This is clearly a bar,” he said.