Florida Housing Coalition launches AHEC support for Kissimmee AHAC; members press for impact-fee relief and CLT help

Ali Ankudovich, director of land use innovation at the Florida Housing Coalition, told the Kissimmee Affordable Housing Advisory Committee on a specially called March meeting that the Coalition will provide legal, policy and administrative technical assistance as part of an AHEC support initiative funded by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. "We really saw an opportunity here to help move some of your strategies forward," Ankudovich said.

The presentation summarized a small survey of committee members and staff that flagged affordability and availability as top barriers and named public land inventory, outreach and other core incentives as areas with some traction. Ankudovich said the initiative will take a deeper look at Kissimmee’s land-use and zoning tools in April and May and produce written recommendations and a June work session to consider next steps.

Committee members used the session to press on concrete obstacles. Lucy Guitto of Habitat for Humanity Orlando and Osceola said permit and impact fees are a major barrier: "Building in us in Kissimmee, specifically versus Orange County is 10 to $20,000 more expensive per unit and that's primarily because of the impact fees and the permit fees," she said, urging continued talks with the school district and the city about fee reductions and deferrals.

Frances de Jesus (city staff) described work on a community land trust (CLT) effort: the city solicited interest and received two responses and "we are probably gonna be partnering with the Florida Housing Coalition in order to get assistance with this," she said. The committee also reviewed accessory dwelling unit (ADU) work: staff said the city chose not to remove the owner-occupancy requirement for the primary structure and a commissioner’s earlier idea to fund ADU construction stalled for lack of local funds.

Members discussed several programmatic ideas beyond zoning changes. Guitto described a Habitat 'Inspects' voucher program that subsidizes four-point and wind-mitigation inspections to help homeowners retain or restore insurance. Chamber and nonprofit representatives urged using the chamber and community partners to host information events and other partnerships rather than having the city endorse specific vendors.

Ankudovich noted pending state legislation that could expand allowances for manufactured and modular homes and other local land-use changes; she recommended tracking those bills and said the Coalition will incorporate state developments into advice for the committee. The AHAC agreed to continue work through the Coalition’s forthcoming report and to revisit these topics at the regular June meeting.