A plan to require foreclosed properties to be registered with the city of Kissimmee in order to facilitate the maintenance of property was delayed at least until April after local real estate agents questioned parts of the proposal before Kissimmee commissioners Tuesday.

The proposed ordinance would have required a local agent to be appointed for all properties in foreclosure, giving the city a local contact person who could handle maintenance, such as mowing, which the city would otherwise have to do at cost to taxpayers. The registration would include a $200 fee, half of which would go the city to help cover maintenance it’s already done on abandoned properties, funds for which the city doesn’t recoup once another owner takes over the property, City Manager Mark Durbin said.

Last month, commissioners gave initial approval of the ordinance. However, city representatives attended an Osceola County Association of Realtors meeting Tuesday morning, during which local Realtors said the proposed ordinance would put unwarranted burden, not to mention extra costs, on them.

“Realtors, they said to me that it is not a good idea at this moment; it’s something that’s taking away some revenue,” Commissioner Carlos Irizarry said.

City staff suggested a delay in approval of the ordinance in light of several objections from the Realtor community. They suggested the creation of a task force of local Realtors, who admittedly recognized the problem abandoned properties represented to the city in a depressed housing market, to pan out a better ordinance.

“I’m still believing that we have to come up with some kind of agreement,” Commissioner Art Otero said. “I don’t feel that it’s fair for the small business, let’s say the Realtors, to pay this fee.”

Commissioner agreed unanimously to delay approval until more research went into the issue.

Baseball complex blocked from city
Commissioners also considered a change to the Tapestry Development of Regional Impact, formally the Bronson property, which would have been the first step in allowing 500 acres at the west corner of Carroll Street and Thacker Avenue to become a 24-field baseball complex.

Osceola County representatives, the Kissimmee Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and the Kissimmee-Osceola County Chamber of Commerce approached the owners about the development idea for most of the Tapestry DRI, Michael Grindstaff, attorney representing the owners, said. The county business community was trying to attract Perfect Game USA to build the complex, which would be used for baseball training, college scouting and national tournaments, according to proposal documentation.

The proposal in front of the commission Tuesday would have relaxed some of the parameters restricting the Tapestry DRI to mostly residential development. The land use change would have allowed the developers to negotiate with Perfect Game USA and eventually bring back a fleshed-out site plan for the complex.

Commissioners said the 24-field complex didn’t fit in with the surrounding residential community, nor with the commission’s original vision for the property, the development of which stalled as the housing market collapsed after it became a community development district in 2007. They also questioned whether the city would lose the tax revenue if the county bought the property.

“I feel this fits in better with more the tourist corridor versus in the center of where we had a residential community that’s emerging,” Commissioner Cheryl Grieb said. “I think in the long-term it’s not going to be viable for the city as a whole.”

Mayor Jim Swan said he didn’t think allowing the proposal represented a risk to the city, as developers still had to come back to the commission for several other changes before the project gained final approval. He cautioned against the commission putting their heads “in the sand because you couldn’t see what was in front of you.”

“This is a different day and time. We’re not going to be seeing what we’re used to seeing,” he said. “Maybe this is an opportunity to rewrite that whole (Tapestry) DRI with more commercial than residential. That’s better for our tax base. Anything is better than cows.”

The commissioners voted 4-1 to deny the change to the DRI. Without a delay from the city, the county now has a chance to persuade Perfect Game USA to build the complex in a different area in the county, they said.