Officials Discuss Rule Changes At Darien's Great Island

DARIEN, CT — The rules and regulations at Darien's Great Island will remain the same for now while the town waits for a hired consultant to reach out to residents to gather feedback on potential changes.

The Great Island Advisory Committee voted last week to keep the current rules and regulations in place. The meeting was held at Darien Town Hall and broadcast via Darien TV79.

"We've had a number of questions come up with different things including the pet policy, the bicycle policy, what are we going to do about fishing off the rocks, are we going to allow kayaks to launch from there or to the island from there, are we going to let fishermen in with their fishing poles and drop, are we going to allow dinghies to tie up next to the fire boat?" said Selectman and GIAC Chair Monica McNally.

"My own thinking is I don't like to do things twice. I don't like to unwind things. My suggestion would be at this time that we keep the rules that we have on everything, and we wait for the consultant to do the reach out to the community to see what people want on each one of these."

Pedestrian access to the island was designed for continuous walking around the mile-plus paved loop because of safety concerns. No gatherings are allowed.

Notably, pets, bicycles or watercrafts are not allowed either.

Board of FInance Chair and GIAC member Jim Palen said certain areas should be cordoned off to the public, but he pointed to the open space on the island and the many grassy areas where residents could sit down and take a break.

"It just seems a little bit awkward you can only literally walk on the road and not throw a baseball or sit down and relax on all the vast amounts of grass we have," he said.

Palen also said he's received feedback from residents who find it "confusing" that Great Island is the only island or park in town where people can't walk their dogs.

"There are certain areas I think we are not set up as a town right now to have residents go on," McNally said. "I don't feel like we are taking anything away from people. People haven't been able to walk their dogs on Great Island for 120 years."

McNally reiterated that she preferred to wait for the consultant.

"Let's let the consultant that we're going to spend a whole lot of money on help us make these decisions so we don't have to change our minds, rewrite our rules and regulations and confuse our community more," she said.

First Selectman Jon Zagrodzky agreed.

"I think that our town's experience with dogs off leash in our other parks, the unique topography of Great Island, the propensity to let a dog run on a 60-acre park with all kinds of interesting things a dog could explore, without the town having an education process, an enforcement plan, a few consequences here and there to just reinforce the rules… We just haven't thought through that," he said.

Zagrodzky added that it's "disappointing" to have continued delays, but he hoped the consultant would provide guidance that "covers the spectrum from rule, to education, to enforcement to reconsideration."

Palen and GIAC Vice Chair Mark Adiletta voted to keep the rules in place, but hoped they could be reconsidered at the earliest convenience.

The full rules and a general view of the walking route can be found here. Violations of the rules for pedestrian access could result in fines between $25 and $250.

View the entire Great Island Advisory Committee Meeting on demand on Darien TV79.