DARIEN, CT — Darien is gearing up to expand access to Great Island, but dogs are not allowed just yet.
The Board of Selectmen this week unanimously voted to approve rules and regulations and access improvement costs to Great Island, and dogs and pets are still prohibited, but officials said they plan to address dog access in the near future.
Monday’s selectmen meeting was held at town hall and broadcast via Darien TV79.
To provide expanded access, the town must complete short-term and long-term tasks, such as installing signage, roping some areas off, adding garbage cans, benches, and conducting stump removals and hole filling.
The rules and expansion tasks can be found in Monday’s agenda packet.
“In preparation for opening additional areas on Great Island for residents to visit, the Great Island Advisory Committee (GIAC) reviewed the necessary improvements and actions to ensure a careful and safe expansion,” said Selectmen and GIAC Chair Monica McNally at the Oct. 7 selectmen meeting.
McNally said the GIAC identified 10 areas around the island that must be improved for expanded access.
“Based on the quantity of these items and recent costs such as the signage for the bridal trail, we estimated a budget of $25,000 to cover both these immediate actions required to open additional spaces, and also addressing the near-term needs,” McNally said.
Access to Great Island will remain the same for now, even with the board’s approval to go forward with expansion tasks. Currently, residents are restricted to the paved loop around the property.
The board decided to leave it up to the GIAC to set an effective date for access to open up based on when the required work is complete.
When access is expanded, residents will still be prohibited from entering buildings, and vehicles will not be allowed on the property.
Dog access has been a topic of conversation since the town first opened Great Island to pedestrians, and McNally and Zagrodzky have said they wanted to wait and speak with a consultant first and implement the right rules the first time around.
Zagrdozky reiterated that point on Monday, and he pointed to the Great Island Vision Plan survey that closes on Oct. 15. The GIAC will review the results with landscape architect firm Reed Hilderbrand.
Reed Hilderbrand is going to have a chance to present those results, and also give us perspective on how they’ve seen dog access rolled out at other municipal properties they’ve developed in their professional careers,” Zagrodzky said.
“What we want to do is have this just right so when we roll this out, we know we’ve got rules in place that make sense that are consistent with the absolute best practice we see in other municipal facilities, and if we do this right, we’re not going to have to go back and change something and make matters worse,” he added.
Neumann asked McNally when the town could address dog access, and McNally indicated it would be before the end of the year.
“There is nothing the [Great Island Advisory] Committee would like to do more than to make a decision on this,” McNally noted.
Zagrodzky said it will be “terrific” to open up the island to residents.
“If we can get our last bit of access with regard to dogs decided, this will be I think a real success for the whole town to see this all completed,” he said.
Residents can make public comment at upcoming GIAC meetings. Upcoming meeting agendas will be posted here.
Watch the entire Oct. 7 Board of Selectmen meeting on Darien TV79.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
