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Boaters urge changes and question authority as Annapolis council hears mooring ordinance
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Summary
At a public hearing on O-2-26, boaters warned the draft could render longstanding private moorings obsolete and urged council to clarify definitions and approval authority; deputy city manager said the bill is meant as a technical correction and that mooring moves require port warden and state/federal review.
The Annapolis City Council on Feb. 23 heard hours of public testimony and council questions on Ordinance O-2-26, a proposed update to mooring requirements in city waters that residents say could unintentionally eliminate privately held mooring rights.
In public testimony, several boat owners told the council the draft ordinance needed clearer language to protect moorings they have leased or purchased. "If my mooring goes away, then honestly, we're not going to be able to keep our boat," said Carrie Cromba Patnode, a Weems Creek resident who said she and her husband spent significant money maintaining a mooring they understood to be theirs. Patnode urged the council to delay adoption so staff can refine definitions and identify exceptions.
Jess Packler, who testified from President Street, supported clarifying the spacing (so that mooring-to-mooring, not vessel-to-structure, is the measure) but urged removing sections that conflict with other parts of city code and that appear to place broad control in the harbor master's office. "By all means, make it so that the moorings are supposed to be 75 feet from another mooring," Packler said, "but the rest of the ordinance really does need to be taken down and revisited."
Deputy City Manager Jackie Guile told the council the legislation is intended as a technical correction to match original intent and avoid creating widespread noncompliance. "If we went by the way the code is written now, about half of our moorings would be out of compliance with code, and we would have to remove them and thus return about $250,000 back to the Department of Natural Resources," Guile said. She said the harbor master's office currently manages transient and annual mooring fields and that changes to mooring fields require port warden review and permitting by the Maryland Department of the Environment and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Council members pressed staff on several points, including whether the draft would shift decision authority to the harbor master, how privately owned moorings are treated, and whether any creeks contain historic private moorings that meet the 75‑foot standard. Guile said the harbor master considers most mooring balls to be public and that annual moorings are leased from the city (residents pay annual leasing fees of $1,200 for residents and $2,000 for nonresidents), but she agreed to follow up on exceptions reported by residents and on Williams Creek, where jurisdiction crosses into county waters.
Aldermen also noted the harbor master's recent recommendation about winter anchoring (a staff safety recommendation, not legislation) and asked staff to return with clearer maps and a mooring-by-mooring assessment before the ordinance moves further in committee.
Next steps: Council closed the public hearing on O-2-26 and invited staff to provide the requested surveys and clarifications to inform committee review and any second-reader consideration.
(Reporting based on public testimony and staff remarks at the Feb. 23, 2026 Annapolis City Council special meeting.)
