Anne Arundel County has reopened a popular boat ramp in Shady Side after facing months of backlash over its abrupt closure in July.

Officials on Wednesday announced they were reopening the Discovery Village boat ramp, having negotiated a new lease with the property owner. The previous lease, officials have said, was too costly and contained other terms unfavorable to the county.

“This new agreement is good news for the county, our taxpayers, and our boaters in South County,” County Executive Steuart Pittman, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We now have a fair, fiscally responsible agreement that restores public boating access at Discovery Village.”

Under the previous lease, the county agreed to pay about $156,000 a year until 2046 to allow the public to launch boats there at no cost. The lease included a provision that required the county to cover all maintenance costs the property owner saw fit, officials have said.

The new agreement will see the county pay roughly $292,000 over the next 21 months, a figure that also covers the cost of repaving the boat ramp and parking lot. Officials said they expect the arrangement to save the county $1.5 million over the same time frame.

Reopening the ramp seems to resolve questions about the county’s agreement with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, which in 2016 awarded the county a grant of nearly $534,000 to build the boat ramp and keep it open to the public for the next 30 years. After learning of its abrupt closure, state officials threatened to force the county to repay the grant.

County Council Chair Julie Hummer, a Democrat who represents west county, said in a statement that the new agreement balances “popular public amenities with fiscal responsibility and saving taxpayer money.”

She added that the county’s Department of Recreation and Parks “has been working tirelessly to increase public water access opportunities throughout the county, and I look forward to residents enjoying the fruits of their labors at Discovery Village and other locations in the months and years ahead.”

After abruptly closing the boat ramp in July following a budget cut by the County Council, the recreation and parks department in August struck a deal with a different marina in Shady Side to give the public free access through October. Critics described the agreement as a stopgap fix.

“The county never stopped the conversation with the property owners at Discovery Village,” Recreation and Parks Director Jessica Leys said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have a new lease that restores public access at this location. We also continue to pursue other avenues to increase public water access in the area and county-wide.”

Reopening Discovery Village means the county, which has 533 miles of shoreline, again operates three public boat ramps. There are three more within its borders, operated by the state and the city of Annapolis.

Anne Arundel County also operates 18 kayak launches and three swimming beaches. The state’s highly popular Sandy Point State Park swimming beach is also in the county.

In sum, the beaches add up to about one mile of public swimming access, or a tenth of a percent of the county’s shoreline.