Popular Lake Norman farmers market reopens after its hometown gave it the boot
After the town of Mooresville booted Josh’s Farmers Market from its former site beside Lowe’s YMCA last year, the popular vendor opened a new outdoor location Friday a half-mile away.
Minutes after the market’s 10 a.m. opening at 630 Brawley School Road, 20 customers were already in line at the register with bags of local fruits and vegetables, and fish that Josh’s workers hauled in that morning from the coast.
“That we’re on the main road is very exciting,” said Garrett Deweese, brother-in-law of market owner Josh Graham. “To hear the traffic.”
Brawley School Road is a heavily traveled, divided four-lane highway at Lake Norman.
Mooresville ordered Josh’s to vacate its former site beside Lowe’s YMCA last year and imposed daily fines.
The town considered Josh’s to be a “full-time retail establishment,” not an “outdoor seasonal sales market” under new town zoning rules, town officials said last year in a news release posted on Facebook, NextDoor and other platforms.
And that meant Josh’s must operate in a building, like the town’s 1,800 other retailers do, according to the news release.
In January, Josh’s lost its appeal of the fines before the Mooresville Board of Adjustment.
Josh’s received a permit from Mooresville May 26 to operate four months at the new site, as a seasonal business, Deweese told The Charlotte Observer at the market. Graham is still looking for a permanent site, he said.
The 2-acre Brawley School Road location is next to a former Lions Club building and is owned by the local Mi Pueblo Mexican Grill chain, Deweese said. The chain is considering opening another of its restaurants there, Deweese said.
Josh’s put up a 40-foot-by-60-foot white canopy tent this week, and Mooresville-based Pedulla Excavating-Grading improved the former gravel parking lot after Josh’s called the company last Sunday morning.
Josh’s had been operating at a significantly smaller site in recent months along nearby Raceway Drive.
“Still may not be an ideal Farm Market setting but it will be home for the next 120 days and we plan to make the most of it!” Josh’s posted on Facebook this week.
“Looking forward to having y’all back in this weekend and once again, thank you all for your patience and dedication to do business with us!”
Sarah West has bought fresh produce at Josh’s for eight years. She stood in line Friday with her three children — and a fourth on the way.
West held a carton of local eggs and a bag of local grapefruit and Ashe County cheese.
She wouldn’t have missed Friday for anything, she said.
