After nearly a year under construction, the boat ramp at Charlie Leighton Park in Palm City is scheduled to reopen in late September, but some boaters are already worried the county's $4.5 million overhaul left little room for anything but smaller rigs. The park's parking spaces now measure 45 feet, and boaters towing larger vessels say that's not going to be enough.
Martin County closed the park and its boat ramps on September 2, 2025, right after Labor Day weekend, kicking off a planned 10-month shutdown that stretched into this summer, according to WPTV. The station reports the county spent $4.5 million redoing the ramp, adding greenspace and gazebos, and expanding the number of designated boat parking spaces from 20 to 26. Roughly $1.2 million of that total went toward water-related improvements, including two new piers, floating docks, and dredging the area next to the ramp, with a state grant partially covering those costs.
Not everyone is thrilled with the redesign. Boater Casey Wallace told the station that boats over 20-something feet would not be able to park at the ramp, and predicted a filled lot could create a major traffic jam. Fellow boater Nick Yahn went out and measured the new parking spaces himself, and found that his truck and trailer would no longer fit — he warned it would end up sticking way out into the road, with trailers potentially jutting into the middle of traffic.
County Says Layout Was Built for Safety, Not Just Size
Jessica Ballash, deputy director of Martin County Parks and Recreation, said the parking design was organized with safety in mind, laid out to use the park's limited space efficiently while still letting cars and trailers move through the lot safely. The same report notes that a typical boat ramp parking space ranges from 40 to 50 feet, putting Leighton Park's 45-foot spots within that standard range even if they fall short for some larger rigs.
For boaters who need more room, the county has pointed them toward two other public ramps. Martin County suggested boaters needing longer trailer parking use Jensen Beach Causeway or Sandsprit Park instead of Leighton Park. Sandsprit Park, near the St. Lucie Inlet, offers five boat launching lanes and roughly 110 trailer parking spaces, according to Boatzia, dwarfing what the smaller Palm City park can offer. Jensen Beach Causeway, meanwhile, provides three launching lanes into the Indian River Lagoon and about 36 vehicle-and-trailer spaces, per Launch Point FL.
A Small Park Serving Many Uses
Part of the challenge is that Charlie Leighton Park was never just a boat ramp. The 4-acre site along the South Fork of the St. Lucie River also houses the Palm City Chamber of Commerce and the Treasure Coast Rowing Club, according to Discover Martin, meaning the county had to balance powerboat parking against space for non-motorized rowers and civic groups on a tightly constrained parcel. That balancing act was formalized in December 2024, when the Martin County Board of County Commissioners approved a seven-year Sovereignty Submerged Lands Lease modification with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, allowing the county to expand dock square footage for courtesy docking facilities, boat ramps, and observation piers, according to county legislative records.
Expanding parking capacity at the park was also folded into broader planning goals, with the project listed as an urban infrastructure priority in the Martin County Community Redevelopment Agency's fiscal year 2025 goals for the Old Palm City redevelopment area.
Bigger Boats, More Competition for Ramp Space
The tension over parking space at Leighton Park reflects a statewide trend. Florida leads the nation in recreational boating, with 1,030,053 registered vessels and an estimated 1 million more unregistered active watercraft on the water, according to 2024 data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Martin County ranks 32nd among Florida's 67 counties with 34 public boat launch sites, and recorded 17 reportable boating accidents in 2024, per FWC figures cited by Boatzia.
Florida law gives local governments the authority to establish idle-speed, no-wake zones within 500 feet of public boat ramps on waterways wider than 300 feet, a safety measure meant to keep launch areas orderly as vessels stage and depart, according to the Florida Senate. With the reopening date approaching, boaters with larger rigs will soon find out whether Leighton Park's redesigned lot works for them, or whether they'll be making the trip to Sandsprit or Jensen Beach instead.
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