Kissimmee commissioners agreed at an annual retreat last week that the ongoing recession would not dissuade them from pursuing their long-term vision for the city, including advancing Vine Street and Lakefront Park improvements.

The retreat was set to determine goals for the upcoming fiscal year.

“There is a pretty good consensus among the commissioners,” Commissioner Cheryl Grieb said. “We all seemed to kind of come together with that long-term vision.”

That refocus on the long-term became apparent Tuesday when commissioners voted 4-1 to block a 500-acre baseball field complex in the early stages of its development on the former Bronson property, on the west side of Carroll Street.

“It’s a short term solution to bring that baseball stuff, but it’s not going to be a long-term solution,” Commissioner Carlos Irizarry explained later.

Developers, who met with some commissioners late this week, will try to push the issue through again in an upcoming meeting, commissioners said.

Irizarry said in previous retreats he had pushed to change ordinances on behalf of small businesses, but realized that more drastic measures might not help in the long term.

Last month, Irizarry was in favor of a temporary reversal of the city’s ban on “human signs” in order to allow costumed Lady Liberties promoting a tax business to wave at passing motorists. He and Commissioner Art Otero were outnumbered by the commissioners who denied the request. Rueben De Jesus, owner of Liberty Tax Services, held a demonstration Friday to protest what he has said is an “extremely unfair” lack of flexibility.

Otero, the newest member of the commission, said he felt this year’s retreat was more organized and peaceful compared to last year, and said he had a better understanding of the city.

“We were working more together,” he said, explaining that he had learned to listen to everybody’s opinion.

During his first year as commissioner, Otero had pushed heavily for the Kissimmee Gateway Airport to apply for a U.S. customs office so it could accept international flights, which he said would help stimulate the city’s economy.

“I think we’re not ready for that yet. I’m more understanding about it,” he said.

While he still believes the possibility could be a “gold mine” for the city, he said the construction of Hoagland Boulevard, which the city has been trying to fund, would impact the airport more right now.

Development goals

With the first phase of Lakefront Park construction under way, commissioners looked to find ways to finance its completion and began to focus their attention to the development of Vine Street.

Grieb said she had pushed for the city to bond out the rest of the costs needed for Lakefront Park in order to complete the project sooner, perhaps within three years. Once it’s completed, it would be easier for developers to see the commissioners’ vision for the downtown, she said.

“If you don’t have a strong core to your city, and that should be your downtown, then it’s hard to build out from that,” Grieb said.

Plus, even with sales tax revenues down and with the cost of financing added in, it could be financially beneficial to finish the park while construction prices are cheap and before inflation picks up after the recession, Grieb said. “What we don’t want to do, in my opinion, is to get caught, where we’re partially through the park project, and then all of a sudden inflation hits and now, when we’re looking at doing another phase, the price is beyond what we thought it would be and we can’t handle it then,” she said.

The commission agreed to make the Vine Street corridor its top priority in the upcoming year. The city will be finalizing development standards for the area, will look for land acquisition opportunities and will try to attract targeted businesses. Commissioners made the consideration of a new community redevelopment agency for the corridor a priority as well.

The development of the Orange Blossom Trail corridor, north of Vine Street, was a new item to make the short list of targeted goals. Commissioners discussed the possibility of creating a joint CRA with the county to help develop the area.

Commissioners will vote on the final list of goals in an upcoming meeting.

Property values anticipated to drop again

City Manager Mark Durbin also warned commissioners that property values were likely to decrease again in the upcoming budget year, as much as 20 percent, reducing the city’s general fund by several million dollars.

Despite that, Durbin said he would not be recommending a rollback, or increase, of the property tax rate, which would compensate for the lowered property values in an attempt to keep the city’s revenue stable, as occurred in the last budget cycle. Instead, the city would “make do with what we’ve got,” he said.

Durbin told the News-Gazette that other revenue sources for the general fund – such as local transfers from the Kissimmee Utility and Toho Water authorities, as well as revenue from the state and a half-cent sales tax, seemed to be stabilizing — if not increasing — to pre-recession levels. If that’s the case, and property taxes are the only revenue source to take a dramatic drop, then “we’ll make it work,” he said.

“We probably will be able to eat the drop in the property taxes, and we’ll continue to make cuts and move forward with a budget that does not include rollback and see if it’s sustainable,” Durbin said. “I think it will be. We just can’t go back to the residents, year after year, and ask them for more money, and I know that.”