A popular Lake Norman farmers’ market will no longer have to uproot every four months to yet another site.

Josh’s Farmers Market — and others like it — are now welcome to operate as permanent open-air agricultural markets selling their fresh Carolinas fruits and vegetables, fish from the coast and other foods, the Mooresville Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed Monday night.

The commissioners voted to add an open-air agricultural market land use to the town zoning ordinance.

The vote culminated months of work with the market by all seven Mooresville elected officials, Mayor Chris Carney said.

And it appears to have ended a years-long bitter feud that landed in the courts.

A seasonal market or a full-time establishment?

Josh’s was previously forced to apply every four months for a temporary permit, and that meant moving each time.

And that followed daily fines in 2022 that Mooresville imposed on Lowe’s YMCA, as the owner of the grassy plot beside the YMCA where Josh’s previously operated.

Mooresville levied the fines because the town considered Josh’s to be a “full-time retail establishment,” not an “outdoor seasonal sales market,” town officials said in a news release posted on Facebook, NextDoor and other platforms in October 2022.

Josh’s had to operate in a building, like the town’s 1,800 other retailers do, according to the news release.

An “understanding” that Josh’s would leave the site was reached during a meeting involving YMCA, the town of Mooresville and market officials, according to a YMCA statement at the time.

In January 2023, Josh’s lost its appeal of the fines before the Mooresville Board of Adjustment.

The town later issued four-month temporary outdoor seasonal sales permits to Josh’s, first for 630 Brawley School Road near the Harris Teeter-anchored Shoppes at Morrison Plantation, and then at 558 River Highway (N.C. 150).

The market still operates at the River Highway location, a traffic-clogged intersection with Williamson and Bluefield roads near the Winslow Bay Commons (Super Target) shopping center.

Commissioner Gary West made Monday’s motion to accept the new land use designation, relieving Josh’s of its itinerant status despite the business being a fixture in town since the 1990s.

“This is a step in the right direction,” West said. “The change will allow Josh’s Farmers Market, as well as others, to operate on the business models they were founded on. Let’s put this behind us and move forward.”

What the new land use allows

The new land use designation requires:

▪ Permanent open-air markets to be at least 35,000 square feet and have at least 5,000 square feet “under permanent structure,” Mooresville Planning Director Erika Martin told the board before its vote.

By comparison, the average U.S. grocery store ranges from 30,000 to 50,000 square feet, Forbes reported.

▪ Agricultural or prepared food products making up 75% of items offered for sale, Martin said.

That provision put to rest a concern raised by commissioner Lisa Qualls at a Friday town board meeting where commissioners reviewed and discussed items on Monday’s agenda.

“What I don’t want this to turn out to be is that all of a sudden we envisioned this really cool agricultural market, and it turns into a flea market,” Qualls said.

▪ No overnight parking of food trucks. Two food trucks would be allowed to operate at such sites, Martin said.

▪ Temporary markets, such as flower sale enterprises, to be at least 10,000 square feet.

Owner thanks town

“This is something that we have hoped we could get put in place,” market owner Josh Graham told the Board of Commissioners Monday night. “This will allow us not to have to change our model, which hasn’t changed since the late ‘90s.”

The market can also increase its services, Graham said.

“The new ordinance more or less rights a lot of wrongs,” Graham’s brother-in-law, Garrett Deweese told the board. “The public has made clear this is what it wants.”

Popular Lake Norman market has a new home — for 4 months