Save Epping Forest Beach — and our Severn River

We are residents, families, and neighbors of Epping Forest, and we need your help to protect our beach and our shared tidal waters from an unnecessarily expansive construction project. A strong and well-resourced group of boat owners is pushing forward a massive expansion of our existing marina that will harm the heart of our community and the Severn River but we want to create an attractive, safe marina for our boaters that is appropriate for our community. Preserve Epping Forest is working hard to re-direct this mega-marina project, but we can NOT do it alone. Please donate TODAY to help us save our Beach and our Severn River!

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Epping Forest's beach has been aptly be named the "jewel of the Severn" due to its beautiful, unencumbered view of the majestic Severn River. It is a gathering place for residents year round for swimming, kayaking, summer camp, fishing and crabbing, and community events that create a close-knit, family community.

Chances are, if you have lived in Annapolis for as long as many of us, you've had the opportunity to enjoy a quiet bonfire with friends, a sandwich and a cold drink at the clubhouse, or a soaring dive off of our diving board. Our beach has formed the bonds of many children and adults through lasting memories.

Our beach adjoins the Severn River, in between Clements Creek and Saltworks Creek. We share these tidal waters with our neighbors across Annapolis, including in the Downs, Saefern, Arnold, Severna Park, and Sherwood Forest. Members of our neighboring communities sail, swim, boat, and kayak these waters. Many of them (and you) have worked hard to improve the quality of our Severn River and our beautiful Chesapeake Bay in the last several years. We must protect and preserve this progress from being carelessly undone.

The very essence of this treasure we share is now under attack by a rapidly progressing project that will significantly expand our existing marina 138ft beyond the marine basin into the Severn River. This unnecessary mega-expansion will add accommodations for dozens of additional boats, including several 50 ft boats. This mega-marina construction project will protrude our marina directly in front of our swimming beach area, potentially rendering it unusable, and significantly blocking the view from the clubhouse. It will also make entering and exiting the neighboring creeks more challenging, limit the use of this area by small boats and kayaks, and pose significant, and impose unnecessary environmental hazards.

Reasonable alternatives exist, including replacing the marina in kind, and/or finding other alternative locations along Clements or Saltworks Creek for a new marina or smaller finger piers. Unfortunately, these alternatives were not meaningfully considered, and we need your help to redirect this project to help sustain our community and our Severn River.

The proponents of this project are aggressively pushing it forward. The process has been largely closed-off and what public support there is has been obtained through misleading financial projections and renderings. Voters have been intimidated. Preserve Epping Forest is doing what we can to help redirect this project onto a more reasonable and environmentally-sustainable path, but we need YOUR help. Among other efforts, we are currently appealing a variance which is necessary for the marina's massive expansion. The hearing for that variance appeal is currently scheduled to occur on September 23, 2025, and we need good legal counsel to represent us.

Please show your support by donating to our cause and help us SAVE EPPING FOREST BEACH and OUR SEVERN RIVER! Any excess funds will be donated in equal parts to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Severn River Association. Together we can preserve our beautiful, natural beach and our Chesapeake Bay, and build a marina our community is proud of. We can do BOTH!