Strength In Numbers, Backed By BoatUS

Your national organization, with some 740,000 members and a dedicated Government Affairs department, guides local boaters in water-access dispute over public launch ramp.

The trailer-boating lifestyle depends on access to safely launch your vessel, so when a popular Maryland launch ramp was abruptly closed before last July Fourth weekend, boaters were left scrambling.

“This is a good example where a local issue affects a specific group of boaters, requiring them to seek strength in numbers, and BoatU.S.

supports them with guidance on forming a working group, engaging with political leaders, and garnering media attention,” explains our BoatU.S. Government Affairs manager David Kennedy.

Following swift local backlash, Anne Arundel County officials partnered with a nearby marina to provide public access to its boat ramp through the 2025 season. Then came a stopgap lease agreement that keeps the launch ramp operational through July 2027. “But we need a permanent solution,” Kennedy adds, “and BoatU.S. will continue supporting this group of dedicated boaters to try to make that happen.”

Failure To Launch

The Discovery Village public launch ramp sits at the end of a peninsula in Shady Side, about 10 miles south of Annapolis, and has been operational since 2018. The single-lane ramp, which Discovery Village leases to the county, allows local and visiting trailer boaters to launch for free into Parish Creek and quickly enter Chesapeake Bay. It’s the only public launch ramp in the southern half of the county, with the next closest about 20 miles away.

“Public ramps like Discovery Village serve everyday families, anglers, and small-boat owners who cannot afford private marina fees,” Kennedy wrote to local decision-makers. “With limited alternative facilities available in the region, the loss of this access point will have a disproportionate impact on residents of Anne Arundel County and beyond.”

The July 1 closing came without public warning after county officials voted to terminate the lease arrangement with Discovery Village (which spanned through 2046) because they deemed it was not cost-effective for taxpayers. The terminated lease prompted the owners of Discovery Village to put up for sale its two-building, 7-acre complex that includes 10 boat slips, a launch ramp, 275 linear feet of newly built bulkhead, 450 feet of usable shoreline, and parking for 200 vehicles. The property was purchased by Discovery Village Shady Side, LLC in 2023 for $2.6 million. The same property was reportedly listed at $3.45 million in November 2025.

Lisa Arrasmith, a public water-access advocate who worked with BoatU.S. to raise awareness of the closure, is among a local group urging the county to purchase Discovery Village and repurpose it as a boating and community center.

“Public investment in public boat ramps pays back big time,” she says, noting how much boaters and paddlers frequent local businesses. “And if there’s a public boat ramp, there are people fishing off the bulkheads and shore. It brings people together. That’s why purchasing the property and building a community center makes so much sense.”

A Legality Twist?

Beyond the local politics, Kennedy noted that construction of the ramp was made possible, in part, through a $533,833 Waterway Improvement Fund competitive grant awarded by the state to the county in 2016. Funding for the WIF program is supported by the Federal Sportfish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, which uses money generated from taxes on fishing equipment and fuel to award grants for boating infrastructure improvements that benefit boaters and anglers.

“Through taxes paid by recreational boaters and anglers, this fund provides boating access across the nation,” Kennedy wrote. “‘Trust’ is a crucial term in this case, with boaters trusting their funds will be used as the county agreed, to keep the Discovery Village boat ramp open to all.”

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has also weighed in. David Goshorn, deputy secretary of the agency, told local news outlets the ramp closing violated the grant funding agreement, and his department may seek repayment of the grant from the county.

For the near term, however, that issue can wait. “With the public use of Discovery Village resuming, the county is in alignment with the requirements for the 2018 Waterway Improvement Fund Grant,” Heath Neiderer of the county Recreation and Parks Department told BoatU.S. Magazine.