Safe Harbor seeks harbor-line tweak to compensate for city street-end park project

On July 14, 2025, Safe Harbor Marinas presented testimony to the Annapolis City Council about ordinance O21-25, which would modify harbor lines at 423 Chester Avenue (Back Creek) to offset commercial slips the marina expects to lose under the city’s Sixth Street street-end park project.

Tripp Fulton, representing Safe Harbor, told the council the planned park would effectively eliminate four commercial slips on the marina’s southern pier and that the harbor-line modification proposed in O21-25 would allow Safe Harbor to recoup those slips by extending harbor lines at the widest portion of Back Creek. Fulton said the Port Wardens had previously approved the street-end park project but that the decision is on appeal in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County and is stayed pending the outcome of the harbor-lines legislation.

“Either these four slips would become totally unusable by this project, or navigating in and out of them will undoubtedly become either impossible or hazardous,” Fulton told the council, saying the harbor-line change was the only practicable location to create replacement slips. He said passage of the measure would likely resolve ongoing litigation and allow both the city and marina to move forward with their respective plans.

Council closed the public hearing without action on O21-25. Council members and staff said they would refer the item to the appropriate committee for further review; the circuit-court appeal remains pending and the harbor-line change is part of negotiations intended to address the impact of the street-end park project on the marina’s commercial operations.