Save Josh’s Farmers Market

The Town of Mooresville is levying thousands of dollars in fines a day against the YMCA to shut down Josh’s Farmers Market, even while the market is arguably operating within town ordinances as written.

The town, in doing so, isn’t following its own adopted ordinances but instead its planner’s interpretation of what a farmers market SHOULD be. So the town expects local businesses to operate within its “interpretation” of approved ordinances instead of the ordinances themselves.

According to the town’s own ordinances, JFM falls into the “farmers market” category. But the town, instead, has decided to call JFM a “retail sales establishment,” into which the market does not neatly fit. JFM isn’t open year-round, and the majority of its business is conducted outdoors. The town’s “retail sales” ordinance severely limits how much space outdoors can be devoted to sales. It cuts the market off at the knees.

Please consider signing this petition if you support the town following its own written ordinances - instead of its planner’s interpretation of said ordinances - and you’d like to keep Josh’s Farmers Market as an open-air, nine-month market that benefits our community.

Sarah West    Contact the author of the petition