By Marvin G. Cortner

Editor

The Osceola County Commission Monday on a 3-2 vote approved a conditional use permit for a funeral home in the former Sonny's barbecue restaurant in the Shoppes of Kissimmee strip mall at 3189 S. John Young Parkway.

Bob Healy Jr., funeral director at the existing Funeraria San Juan at 2661 Boggy Creek Road in Buenaventura Lakes, intends to convert the former restaurant into his second location. The restaurant is at the front of the strip mall.

Opponents – mainly developer and real estate interests – said having a funeral home at the front of the strip mall would not be compatible with existing businesses and that it would kill a deal involving co-tenants Dollar Tree, Sav-A-Lot and Ross for the former Publix space. Publix moved out of the shopping center several years ago to a site on the southwest corner of the John Young Parkway-Pleasant Hill Road intersection.

The Osceola County Planning Commission March 3 on a 6-2 vote recommended approval of the permit, with the restriction that funeral processions only be allowed between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., in order to eliminate traffic issues on the two major roadways in the area. The County Commission included that restriction in its approval.

Healy after the vote said he was sorry his request to open a second funeral home had become so controversial, adding that certain real estate interests had “tried to hold back” the conditional use.

“I look forward to expanding my service to south Kissimmee,” Healy said, adding that he caters to the Hispanic community and that there is no other firm in the area that serves more Hispanic families than he does. “It will be a lot more convenient for people in Poinciana to come to my second funeral home than having to go to BVL.”

In commenting to the commission during the public hearing on the issue, Healy said there already are two churches in the shopping center and that they have funeral services. He said he didn't see much difference between his proposed funeral home – which would include a chapel – and the two churches.

Jim McNeil, attorney for CWCapital, the owner of the retail space where the Publix had been, said having a funeral home in a free-standing building at the front of the strip mall would compromise the deal now being put together with the three retailers planned for the 74,230-square-foot retail space formerly occupied by Publix.

“We don't see any relationship between a funeral home and retail; there is not one example of this in the five-county Central Florida area,” McNeil said, adding that the churches in the strip mall are “on the fringes” of the area, not out front along John Young Parkway.

Commissioner John Quiñones asked McNeil what has held the owners back in terms of being slow to redevelop the Publix space.

McNeil said the property went through foreclosure and that the economy just has not supported additional retail in that location until now, plus it has taken time to line up new retail clients. McNeil, when pressed by commissioners, could not say when leases would be signed with the retail clients, only that the leases were more or less contingent on the funeral home not being allowed.

Several developers and redevelopers of shopping centers spoke on behalf of each side of the argument, as did the attorney representing the current owner of the closed restaurant property, Community Bank of Florida.

Voting for the conditional use permit were commissioners Quiñones and Michael Harford and Chairman Brandon Arrington; commissioners voting against the permit were Frank Attkisson and Fred Hawkins Jr.

In other news, the commission:

• Authorized the county manager to negotiate with Dock Pro, a company based in Clermont, for the franchise to provide bus benches on public right of way on Lynx routes in the county for a monthly payment of a minimum of $20/bench for all benches installed; Dock Pro, if selected, would be able to sell advertising on the benches.

The principals in Dock Pro, according to the state documents, are Gary T. Butler Jr. and Gary T. Butler Sr. The other bidder for the franchise was Colonio Hispano Americana de la Florida Central, Kissimmee.

• Approved a one-year moratorium on the opening of pain management clinics, commonly referred to as pill mills, in the unincorporated areas. The moratorium will allow the county time to develop an ordinance restricting operating hours and to prohibit cash sales of prescription medicines at the clinics. The city of St. Cloud also recently imposed a moratorium and the city of Kissimmee is considering such action as well.