The owners of Ragga Surf Cafe, the only concessionaire in Marineland, hope a meeting Thursday before the town commission will give them clarity on whether they can continue to operate near the attraction’s beachfront.
The future of the Ragga Surf Cafe in Marineland is uncertain.
The temporary permit for Ragga Surf Cafe, a mobile food truck with picnic tables, is set to expire Dec. 31. The meeting Thursday will be held at 6 p.m. at the GTM Research Reserve building at 9741 N. Oceanshore Blvd.
The cafe, established in 2021, had originally been located on a private lot adjacent to Marineland owned by Jacoby Development, the same Atlanta-based company that has expressed interest in building a mixed-use complex of residential homes and commercial properties on the last 37 acres of undeveloped land in the small town.
A petition on Change.org to save the Ragga Surf Cafe had collected nearly 8,500 by mid-day Thursday.
Issues around compliance with grant agreement
According to cafe founder Jim Powell, Jacoby Development informed him that their lease, which had been conditional, had been terminated in August, as Powell said, “so he (Jacoby) could market the property (for development).”
After that happened, Ragga Surf worked out a deal to move their operations to a nearby shoreline property within the River to Sea Preserve. That park is under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection but overseen by both Flagler County and the Town of Marineland through a grant agreement.
In a news release issued Dec. 13, Flagler County is facing “noncompliance issues from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for allowing the cafe to operate at the River to Sea Preserve.”
The release goes on to say that “Like all grants, there are many conditions imposed on both the county and the town. If the grant agreement is violated, the ultimate sanction to the county and town would be to lose ownership of the River to Sea Preserve to the FDEP.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Meeting in Marineland Thursday to address concerns over beachside cafe