- December 17, 2024
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The Ragga Surf Cafe must pack its bags as 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.
“No good deed goes unpunished,” Vice Chair Leann Pennington said.
The county and the town of Marineland jointly own and manage the River to Sea Preserve, where Ragga Surf has been allowed to operate since September. But in the rush to help support a local business that benefits a nonprofit, the county and town are now at risk of losing the River to Sea Preserve.
The issue started at the Aug. 19 Flagler County Commission meeting when, during commissioner comments, Commissioner Greg Hansen brought up Ragga Surf’s eviction from a site on property owned by JDI Marineland, just north of the café’s current location at the River to Sea Preserve at 9700 N. Ocean Shore Blvd.
Typically, to lease land to a for-profit business, the county is required to send the prospective site out for an official bid process. County Attorney Sean Moylan, at the Aug. 19 meeting, said Florida Statutes allow the county to lease land to nonprofit corporations without going out for bid.
Ragga Surf’s nonprofit is Inter-United, which supports a local soccer group of 700 Palm Coast children and a school in Kenya, Ragga Surf owner Jim Powell told the commission. Ragga Surf’s profits then benefit Inter-United.
County Administrator Heidi Petito said at the time that the commission would have to review the lease agreement again that September, but, according to Flagler County Commission meeting documents, the item did not return to the commission for review.
At the Dec. 16 meeting, Pennington explicitly asked why the item never came back before the board.
“I thought that legal told us that this was going to be requiring a resolution to be brought back," she said. "We should have known that the DEP was going to require action there before we put someone there."
No one at the Aug. 19 meeting brought up the fact that Preserve was purchased through grant funding from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Florida's Community Trust grant program. The grant's contract requires the county and town to follow certain criteria when operating businesses on the preserve’s land.
In November, Flagler County received a notice from the FCT that the River to Sea Preserve was in noncompliance with the county’s contract with FCT. At the Dec. 16 meeting, Petito said the noncompliance items included the 5K events, the monthly Marineland Market event and Ragga Surf's presence on the Preserve.
"FCT did not weigh in on that approval," Petito said.
Ragga Surf was notified that it would need to vacate the premises by the end of the calendar year in November.
Ragga Surf co-owner Jim Powell thanked the commission on Dec. 16 for allowing the cafe to stay on the site for the last four months. He pleaded with the county to all for or find a way to extend the end-of-year deadline.
"I'm here tonight just to ask you to come through for this community of people again," Powell said. "In the holiday season, it is near impossible to relocate and keep our people employed beyond Dec. 31."
‘SAVE RAGGA SURF’ CAMPAIGN
On Dec. 11, Ragga Surf reached out to the public on social media asking for the public's support to help save Ragga Surf Cafe.
The campaign included a petition for Flagler County and Marineland to extend the business' temporary use permit. Since launching the petition on Dec. 11, it has received over 8,000 signatures.
But Flagler County said its hands were tied. In a statement released in response to the online campaign, the county said when FDEP learned Ragga Surf was on the Preseve, it immediately instructed Flagler County and Marineland to remove Ragga from the premises.
Though the county has had no choice but to comply, it said, it plans to continue working with Marineland and the FDEP to "hopefully allow for a concessionaire" at the Preserve in the future.
"The county does not question the value of Ragga Surf as an asset to the community, or that it has been a good steward of the Preserve," the statement read.
Once the noncompliance issues are taken care of, Petito told the commission, it plans to continue the bid process so that Ragga Surf and other businesses can compete to be a concessionaire on the site.
Local residents have called Ragga Surf "a community hub" and have pleaded with Flagler County to bring the FDEP and FCT to the table before the end of December to figure out a solution.
Marineland resident Lisa Hogan said Ragga Surf has reached "iconic status" in the community in a very short amount of time.
"Raga surf cafe and their subsidiary organizations have built a bridge that brings community together and a place for us all to sit at the same table," Hogan said. "That is a gift without a price tag."
Ragga Surf made several posts on its Facebook page about the situation. In one recent post, the cafe said that it is focusing now on Marineland's Dec. 19 meeting where "we believe a plan can be put in place that is good for all."
