Anne Arundel County may have to pay Maryland more than $500,000 for abruptly closing a boat ramp in Shady Side in July.

In 2016, the county secured a $533,833 grant from the state Department of Natural Resources’ Waterway Improvement Fund to build the Discovery Village boat ramp and keep it open to the public for 30 years.

The county paid for the rest of the $1.6 million cost to build the ramp and signed a lease with the waterfront facility’s private owner, agreeing to pay about $156,000 a year so long as the County Council kept funding it.

Several council members described the lease as a raw deal for the county when they voted, against the wishes of County Executive Steuart Pittman, not to continue funding the agreement during a June budget hearing.

That decision could prove costly.

David Goshorn, Maryland’s deputy secretary of natural resources, wrote Pittman a letter July 17 saying his agency learned of the ramp’s closure from a third party.

“The agreement between the Department and the County requires the operation of this boat launch or other comparable facility,” Goshorn wrote. “Closing the Discovery Village Boat Launch Facility is a breach of this agreement. If the County cannot meet its obligations pursuant to the grant agreement, the Department may seek to enforce its rights, which includes the repayment of the grant to the Waterway Improvement Fund.”

A spokesperson for Pittman said his administration couldn’t speak to lawmakers’ reasoning for cutting funds for the boat ramp.

Nobody, including Pittman’s staff, at either of the two budget hearings when the cuts were made mentioned the possibility of needing to repay the state.

Councilwoman Julie Hummer, a Democrat who represents Western Anne Arundel, introduced the budget amendment to stop funding Discovery Village.

She said she didn’t know the county might owe the state half a million dollars if it closed the ramp. But she said she believes the lease was unfavorable because it “basically let the owner do whatever they wanted in terms of repairs and improvements, and the county would have to pay for it.”

“With or without the state funds, it was still an extremely expensive and problematic lease,” Hummer said. “At what point do you stop pouring money in?”

Councilman Nathan Volke, a Republican who represents Pasadena, co-sponsored Hummer’s budget amendment. Volke said he knew it was a possibility the state could “claw back” the grant money, but the lease was so unfavorable to the county that it was worth the risk.

“It did not make fiscal sense for the county,” Volke said, later adding: “Everybody understands there needs to be a boat ramp in south county. ... This was not the solution.”

The measure failed at first, with Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien, a Democrat who represents Annapolis, originally voting against closing the ramp “to hear about the impact of terminating the lease.”

Like many county leases, the agreement for Discovery Village included a provision allowing for termination if the council decided not to fund it.

Rodvien called for a new vote days later, reversing course on her vote.

She said she didn’t know about possibly having to repay the state but said that wouldn’t necessarily have changed her decision.

“It was really more about the potential and even, my understanding was, known repairs that were going to be requested and how much further into the county coffers that was going to take us and realizing that that was more than we had planned for and we needed to make the right decision for the financial picture of the county,” Rodvien said.

She said she and others hoped the Discovery Village lease could be renegotiated.

Councilwoman Shannon Leadbetter, a Republican who represents South County and voted to end the lease, did not respond to a request for comment.

About a month after the county shuttered Discovery Village, it reached an agreement with another South County marina to provide the public with a free boat launch through October. That deal costs the county $7,500 a month.

Pressure continues to mount on officials to find a permanent solution, with many calling for the county to purchase Discovery Village, which is listed for sale for $3.45 million.

“Please re-open the boat ramp at Discovery Village,” Shady Side resident Velma Cush wrote to the council ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. “Our tax dollars paid for the construction, and we have few resources here in South County and this was an awesome resource for us. It’s truly disgusting that tax dollars were used to construct this boat ramp, and now it cannot be used. Shame.”

Capt. Mike Renzi, of Hydra BowFishing Guide Services, wrote that he is one of several commercial watermen who puts his boat in the water at Discovery Village.

“I plead that adequate public water access be restored in south county to fulfill the needs of all the members of the community that depend on our greatest resource, the Chesapeake bay, [whether] that dependence be livelihood or simply time on the water to relieve the stresses of everyday life,” Renzi wrote.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Hummer, the chair, told those upset about Discovery Village to take their complaints to Pittman’s administration because it, not the council, negotiates leases.

In his letter, Goshorn demanded to meet with Pittman’s team. That meeting happened in early August, according to spokespeople for Pittman and the Department of Natural Resources.

“DNR is aware that the county is pursuing temporary public access solutions and a long-term replacement to provide public water access,” county spokesperson Renesha Alphonso said in an email.

DNR spokesperson Gregg Bortz said the department and county are “working to find a mutually acceptable resolution.”

Bortz said the department hasn’t determined whether to make the county repay the grant and doesn’t “have a time frame right now” on that decision.