Consultants from GAI presented an updated framework for the Vine Street Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) at a City of Kissimmee workshop, outlining goals, potential redevelopment sites and financing projections and asking commissioners for feedback ahead of a public meeting scheduled for Sept. 24.

The update frames five forward moves — prepare for redevelopment, leverage partnerships, ensure comfort and safety, attract and retain businesses, and invest in housing — and proposes actions ranging from a digital inventory of redevelopment-ready parcels to expanded grant programs and targeted streetscape and stormwater improvements. "By the time the CRA sunsets, you're going to have over a $100,000,000," GAI project manager Claudia Clifton told the commission when describing tax‑increment financing (TIF) projections that the consultants used to estimate the CRA trust fund over time.

Why it matters: The Vine Street corridor covers a long, narrow area from Bass Road on the west to Dean John Lane on the east, and the CRA contains a high share of the city’s businesses and a mix of commercial, multifamily and vacant properties. The plan update is intended to serve as the CRA’s multi‑year “business plan,” giving the CRA an actions list and a capital improvements framework that staff can attach budgets to in order to spend trust‑fund dollars.

Key points from the presentation

- Boundary, assets and subareas: The CRA extends from Bass Road east to Dean John Lane, north to Columbia Avenue and south to Oak Street. GAI organized the corridor into six subareas for planning: Shingle Creek, North of Vine, Gateway (near the airport), Orange Gardens (residential), Mixed‑Use Medical, and the area near Valencia College and NeoCity. Consultants highlighted proximity to NeoCity, Valencia College and natural amenities such as Shingle Creek as market advantages.

- Land use, existing conditions and demographics: The draft shows nearly 90% of the corridor with a future land‑use designation of mixed use. Consultants reported roughly 30% of parcels are commercial uses, about 12% are multifamily and around 10% of parcels counted as vacancy in their inventory. They said households in the CRA concentrate in income bands between $15,000 and $35,000, underscoring affordability concerns.

- Hotels, vacancies and candidate sites: The consultants identified 17 hotel sites within the CRA (20 citywide) and mapped potential catalyst sites including the former Medieval Times/Howard Johnson/flea market area, plaza properties along Oak and Dyer Boulevard, the Kmart site (already under city attention) and several plazas and vacant parcels recommended for monitoring, consolidation or acquisition.

- Draft actions and implementation approach: Each goal in the draft plan is paired with types of actions — planning and site preparation, new plans/policies, incentive programs, capacity building, awareness/engagement and capital projects. The consultants recommended creating a digital redevelopment inventory, identifying catalyst sites for land assembly, expanding commercial and residential improvement grants, and establishing an annual CRA work plan tied to TIF projections.

- Housing requirement and financing scenarios: GAI said the plan will include a housing chapter to meet a new state statutory requirement for CRA housing elements. Using a moderate projection scenario, the consultants presented multi‑year trust‑fund estimates (for example, roughly $16 million through 2030 under their moderate scenario, and a cumulative projection that the consultants said could exceed $100 million by the CRA sunset), and stressed these are estimates that staff should validate annually with the finance department.

- Community engagement and priorities: GAI reported multiple engagement touchpoints — working‑group meetings, focus groups (about 25 stakeholders), an open house with day and evening sessions, an online survey and outreach at community festivals. In their summary of poll results and stakeholder feedback, top priorities included redevelopment of the Kmart site, safe streets for all, addressing the unhoused population, new development incentives and new infill development.

Speaker comments and follow‑up

Clifton emphasized that the CRA plan is intended as a long‑term business plan and that annual work plans will set implementation priorities and budgets. She also noted the plan will distinguish actions by effort and transformative impact and that stormwater and street improvements will require coordination with regional and state transportation agencies because the CRA does not control all right‑of‑way.

City staff and commissioners asked for additional detail on citations (code enforcement categories), vacant acreage for the CRA (consultants said roughly 9.6% of CRA land classified as vacant), hotel licensing and tax‑delinquency records (staff said the tax collector or Experience Kissimmee would hold more complete records), and how stormwater requirements will apply as parcels redevelop. GAI said redevelopment will generally trigger requirements to meet current stormwater standards and suggested that a shared or "master" stormwater pond could increase development capacity on constrained sites.

No formal votes were taken during the presentation. GAI and city staff invited commissioners to submit any additional priorities via an interactive poll that will remain open for about 10 days and to attend the community presentation of the plan on Sept. 24, after which the draft will be revised prior to the formal adoption process described by staff (consultants estimated the adoption process could take roughly three months, counting required steps with county and state review).

Ending

GAI will finalize the draft plan framework after incorporating feedback from commissioners and the upcoming public meeting; staff said the CRA team will use the plan and TIF projections to prioritize capital projects and incentive programs in future annual work plans. The consultants and staff encouraged commissioners to review the submitted materials and invited the public to the Sept. 24 meeting for final input before the plan moves toward adoption.