Dogs Will Now Be Allowed On Great Island After Approval Of New Rules

DARIEN, CT — Great Island will soon have some new four-legged furry visitors.

The Darien Board of Selectmen this week voted to allow dogs on the 60-plus acre piece of land, two weeks after prohibiting them as part of a desire to expand property access for residents.

Dogs will be allowed on the property for a trial period through March 31, and they must remain leashed and on Great Island's paved roads.

The dog rules, and the expanded property access, which now allows for picnicking, will go into effect once the town completes tasks such as installing signage, roping some areas off, adding garbage cans, benches, and conducting stump removals and hole filling.

Selectman and Great Island Advisory Committee (GIAC) Chair Monica McNally said on Monday "we're probably looking at a couple of weeks. We're not looking at three months" for that work to be finished. The town will make a public announcement when the work is complete.

"I definitely want to make it really, really clear to our community that at this point, everything is the same and once we are ready to go with all of this work, these new rules will go into effect," McNally said.

Dog access has been a topic of conversation since the town first opened Great Island to pedestrians. There has been a strong desire from the community to allow dogs, but also concerns about their impact on Great Island's wildlife and residents' ability to follow rules and pick up after their dogs and keep them on leashes.

The GIAC approved the dog rules by a vote of 7-2 on Oct. 17 during a meeting in which the committee reviewed vision plan survey results with landscape architect firm and master plan consultant Reed-Hilderbrand.

Reed-Hilderbrand principal Beka Sturges said she preferred to wait before making a decision on dogs at Great Island.

Selectman and GIAC member Michael Burke said "the overwhelming amount of people who have either written us, called us, stopped us in the street, want dogs on that Island."

McNally later suggested keeping dogs on paved roads.

The Board of Selectmen also voted to recommend that the Representative Town Meeting initiate an effort to create an ordinance pertaining to the enforcement of the new rules, through warnings and fines, on Great Island, in collaboration with the Board of Selectmen and the police department.

You can view the Board of Selectmen and Great Island Advisory Committee meetings on demand on Darien TV79.