Here's When Much-Needed Parking Could Be In Place At Darien's Great Island

DARIEN, CT — The town of Darien plans to pursue a "scaled-back" early access project for Great Island over the next year, with a focus on providing much-needed parking for visitors to the 60-plus acre waterfront property.

First Selectman Jon Zagrodzky gave his annual "State of the Town" remarks to the Representative Town Meeting this week, and spoke briefly about Great Island and the progress that was made in 2025 and what lies ahead. The meeting is available to watch on demand on DarienTV.

In September, the Board of Finance voted to table a $2.3 million appropriation and bonding authorization request that would have jumpstarted resident early access.

The money was to be used for schematics, drawings and technical specifications as well as the preparation of bid documents, oversight of permitting and approvals, management of the bid process, and construction monitoring.

The project would have included the addition of parking, a small welcome center with bathrooms, trails, signage, and a restored meadow area, all on the west side of the property. A second appropriation for construction was estimated to be between $10 million and $14 million, bringing the total early access and stabilization project to between $12.3 million and $16.3 million.

The Board of Finance felt the project was too big in scope and that more information was needed, so they voted to table the request.

"We've gone back and thought about that," Zagrodzky said Monday. "Basically, it's a scaled-back version where we're not going to be doing the bathrooms that we envisioned. We are going to focus on what I think is unanimous that everybody wants, which is we need parking on Great Island."

Zagrodzky said there are too many residents in town who are "mobility challenged," and a walk to Great Island from Pear Tree Point or nearby churches is "not acceptable."

"We're going to work to try to create that access as soon as possible. The problem is, to get that parking done right, it means we're not going to have parking on the island this summer," Zagrodzky said.

If all goes according to plan, construction on permanent parking could begin late summer or early fall 2026, with completion as early as 2027, according to Zagrodzky.

In the meantime, the town will work on setting up a shuttle service to Great Island.

Zagrodzky has already spoken to Chris Jones from At Home Darien who has volunteered to help with senior transportation to the island. The town could also sponsor transportation efforts.

The widening of 23A - the access road to Great Island - is "going well," according to Zagrodzky, and will be finished around May in time for the warmer weather. The shuttle service will also be in place by then.

But the process to add permanent parking will take some time.

"It's not going to be as easy as just saying, 'Oh, let's just throw down some gravel and start parking.' It does need to be done carefully," Zagrodzky said. "There's pretty extensive permitting that's going to be required, and so having a process where we're doing it as inexpensively as possible, but doing it responsibly, I think, is going to be the right course to take."

Work related to drainage, utilities and lighting will be included in the project.

Zagrodzky said Requests for Proposals (RFP) have been prepared and posted with bids due by Jan. 15, 2026, with an eye towards putting together schematics, designs, permitting and construction bid documents, which could all be ready to go by mid-summer 2026.

Construction work on parking could start late summer, early fall 2026.

Zagrodzky said the town will look to request around $33,000 in the coming weeks to conduct survey work in the area where parking is proposed. He noted getting the necessary funding in place "sooner rather than later" would speed up the process.

Portable toilets would be put in place at Great Island as the town figures out what will be done about bathrooms in the future.

You can watch Zagrodzky's full remarks to the RTM on DarienTV.