The Founders Park Boat Ramp Plan Starts in the Trailer Lot
On a Saturday in the fall of 2024, a member of Islamorada's Parks and Recreation committee drove into Founders Park and saw a sign at the gate reading "Boat Trailer Parking Full." He walked the trailer area anyway and counted 11 trailer parking spots. He also counted 13 boat trailers without tags, 12 with out-of-state tags and 6 with expired tags. He brought that count to the committee's October 23, 2024 meeting, and it is recorded in the meeting minutes.
For anyone in Plantation Key Colony who keeps a trailer in the side yard, that Saturday shows how the Plantation Yacht Harbor ramp really works. The ramp sits a short drive up Overseas Highway at Founders Park. When it gets crowded, the trouble is usually where to leave the truck and trailer. The ramp itself is rarely the issue. The village plan going to a public workshop on Tuesday, November 10 treats parking and the ramp as equal parts of the same project.
At the same October 2024 meeting, Plantation Yacht Harbor dockmaster Lisa Watts explained how the lot is divided. She has run the marina since 2013. The trailer lot near the marina has 17 parking spots set aside for boat ramp users to park a car and trailer for the day. The spaces around them are reserved for marina residents, who can store a boat up to 25 feet there for an extra fee. According to the minutes, that storage cost $225 a month for a boat between 15 and 25 feet and $175 a month for one under 15 feet. Watts said the trailers with expired or missing tags belonged to annual boaters who live at the marina year-round and also rent slips.
So day launchers and marina tenants share one lot, and both are paying customers of a marina with about 82 slips. Watts described the marina as an enterprise fund that covers its own budget, projects and storm damage without taxpayer money. In the fiscal year before that meeting, it brought in about $138,000 from trailer parking and boat ramp fees. Trailer fees made up $79,000 of that. More than half of the ramp-related revenue came from parked trailers, not from launches.
When the committee member asked whether a village resident could reserve a trailer spot before launching, Watts said there wasn't enough room to set spaces aside. She added that a resident will never be turned away from the ramp, and that the grass behind the amphitheater can be used when the lot is full.
Fishing guides started the current plan. In March 2025, Capt. Richard Black asked the Parks and Recreation Citizen Advisory Committee to let guides use the existing ramp at more practical hours. According to the March 11, 2025 minutes, speakers said the 8 a.m. opening misses early guide launches, the ramp's design makes launching alone difficult, and the hours get in the way of sunset trips.
That spring, the village looked at reopening a historic launch. Keys Weekly reported that the old site was used from the 1960s until a newer ramp was finished around 1981. Bringing it back would mean excavating about 1,100 square feet of mangroves and 3,000 square feet of seagrass, at an estimated $600,000 to $800,000 including mitigation and construction. The same article noted that the existing ramp sits among the marina slips. It reported that Watts was concerned frequent guide launches there could hurt slip rentals.
I serve on the Parks and Recreation committee. At its May 20, 2025 meeting, Village Manager Ron Saunders said a historic ramp could affect mangroves, seagrass and coral, and Mayor Sharon Mahoney wanted the state's input. I suggested letting a small group of guides try the existing ramp before building another one.
The historic-launch idea and the current plan are separate proposals. The mangrove and seagrass figures above, and the $600,000 to $800,000 estimate, apply to the old site, not to what the village is designing now.
On May 12, 2026, the Village Council adopted Resolution 26-05-44. In it, the council found a need for "additional boat launching facilities and additional trailer parking at the Founders Park marina." The resolution says the council and stakeholders chose a second launch next to the current one as the location for the new ramp, and that a redesign of the current trailer parking area is warranted to add trailer storage.
So the parking redesign is half of the project, by the council's own wording. Coastal engineering firm Cummins Cederberg was hired for Phase I under a work authorization capped at $53,700. The money comes from the Plantation Yacht Harbor Marina Fund, the same enterprise fund that the ramp and trailer fees feed. The scope calls for feasibility and permitting due diligence and one conceptual ramp-and-parking design at roughly the 10% stage. It covers:
Phase I doesn't include permitting or geotechnical investigation. Final design, construction documents, permitting, bidding and procurement are described as a later Phase II under a separate proposal. Three of the five items in that list concern what happens on land, and the trailer count is one of them.
Several funding figures have come up this year, and each is at a different stage.
| Item | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Cummins Cederberg Phase I conceptual work | Up to $53,700 | Authorized May 12, 2026, from the Plantation Yacht Harbor Marina Fund |
| Florida Boating Improvement Program grant | Up to $100,000 | Application authorized May 2026, with a village share of up to $20,000 toward a $120,000 Phase I budget |
| Tourist Development Council | $750,000 | Commitment reported by staff at the October 6, 2026 council meeting |
The grant line is an application, not an award. Citizen Portal's summary of the October 6 council meeting says staff reported the $750,000 Tourist Development Council commitment and recommended more public workshops, better cost estimates and further scoping before any final action. Staff cited permitting timelines and environmental issues including seagrass, mangroves and Army Corps permitting. According to that summary, no final design or contract was approved that night.
The village held a stakeholder meeting on the conceptual design on July 21, 2026. A second meeting scheduled for August 26 was canceled. The November 10 session is the next public chance to weigh in. Details from the village's public notice:
Plantation Key Colony boaters who launch at the park will notice the parking layout, trailer capacity and entry pattern more than anything else in the design. A concept drawn to the 10% stage is the point where those items are still being set.
Until anything is built, launching at Founders Park works the way it does now. In May 2024, Keys Weekly reported that the ramp was open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Islamorada residents could launch free with identification, and non-residents paid $40 to launch and retrieve. Those are 2024 figures, so check current hours and fees with the marina before a trip. The village's December 9, 2025 Founders Park fee schedule still lists free park access for Islamorada residents.
If you want to talk through how ramp access, trailer storage or dockage near Founders Park affects your plans on Plantation Key, Alina Davis is happy to share what she knows from the committee table and the water. Let's Connect.
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