‘Not going to abandon the vendors’: Owner of popular food truck site pushes back against closure

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]What you're saying right now is these two ladies just pulled in and they basically had to tell them the food trucks aren't operating right now.

[00:00:06]They're saying that we no longer have retained our vested rights as a commercial property in St. Johns County.

[00:00:12]The Outpost became very popular, a place to come get some food, hang out, and for some local entrepreneurs to grow their business like Tyler and his airbrush studio. Can you show me inside?

[00:00:22]Yep, this is one of the businesses that's on the property right now that says they got to shut down.

[00:00:27]It's a studio. I spend almost all the money I make aside from my bills on these the food vendors. This is the Outpost on Old Moultrie Road and this is what it's going to be. This is what the landowner has envisioned. Kind of a container style venue in the interim.

[00:00:43]He's had some food trucks out here and some small businesses that until last week when he got a cease and desist by the county to immediately stop.

[00:00:51]>> If you want to do this, you need to bring us full engineering designs to redevelop your parking lot to connect to utilities. You're talking about they want to just spend millions of dollars to activate this in the interim as a food truck park. According to this court record, the county is saying it's a violation of the land code to have mobile sales units on unimproved property. Records show that back in August, the owner submitted an application and was told he could not move forward with his food truck project until the site was properly developed.

[00:01:20]Previously on the site was an older building which Justin told me he demolished. The county goes on to say the property did not have paved parking or a restroom on the site. On top of that, the county said the container this airbrush artist is using is unpermitted without a main structure. But the owner's team argued that this property has had long-standing improvements.

[00:01:40]Still, despite the county record saying he was not in compliance, Justin continued with the food truck operations until he says he was given the cease and desist last week. If you're already going to develop and you're going to spend all this money to bring it up to whatever the code is, why are you fighting so hard for these trucks? The whole purpose of this was a place where families and communities can gather. The whole purpose of the Outpost was to provide a platform for small business to be able to grow and thrive. And I'm not going to abandon, you know, the vendors that are out here right now. Jon Aurigemma Channel 4, The Local Station.

[00:02:13]I did, yes. I got that on my phone.