Sign below to protest the $1 MILLION purchase of .97 acres of wooded, wetlands between the residential neighborhoods of Crescent Shores/Ezra Savage/Yacht Club Roads at Deep Creek Lake to turn it into a parking lot, a boat launch, restrooms…and this may just be the beginning. The State of Maryland has approved this colossal waste of taxpayer dollars, which will sever a neighborhood and destroy wetlands by literally "paving over paradise and putting up a parking lot", something wholly unnecessary when these funds could be better spent to fix areas that are deteriorating at the existing DCL State Park or address the lake's invasive species and sediment issues.

By adding an unwanted new public access, the State will create a safety hazard, promote environmental degradation, welcome more invasive species to the already threatened lake. An unwelcome public access point at this location will increase boat congestion in one of the narrowest part of the main lake and will increase vehicle traffic on the quiet, dead-end, one and 1/2 laned Yacht Club/Ezra Savage Roads ( and Crescent Shores-a private road), resulting in dangerous safety issues on water and on land. Allowing another public boat launch site at Deep Creek will exacerbate the invasive hydrilla/eurasian water milfoil weeds. This public access will forever change the character and rural/residential nature of southern DCL, which is not only an insult to the generations of property owners who have lived here for decades, but is a threat to those property values.

Not only is this proposal ill-conceived, but the waste of taxpayer dollars on this plan is astonishing. Note that several nearby properties with lake access were recently appraised around $300,000. That's $3,000 an acre rather than $1 million an acre. Why would the state pay more than three times this amount for wetland property to destroy it with a parking lot, boat launch and restrooms?

Send the message to the county and state elected officials: We have not asked for this. This plan has been hatched behind closed doors.

We demand transparency. We demand an accounting of our taxpayer money. We demand answers from the parties who have tried to slip this through disregarding Lake-1 residential zoning without public notification and comment. For the state to buy property for public access and then AFTERWARDS make plans is abominable.

THE WATERS of Deep Creek are already TOO CROWDED AND DANGEROUS

Keep spreading the word!