Selectmen Take Early Step Toward Providing Early Access At Darien's Great Island

DARIEN, CT — The Darien Board of Selectmen on Monday voted unanimously for a $27,000 appropriation for a land survey at Great Island, an important step as the town embarks on providing early access to the property for residents and visitors.

The Darien Board of Finance was scheduled to consider the appropriation Tuesday night. The Representative Town Meeting is also expected to vote at a future meeting.

Monday's Board of Selectmen meeting is available to watch on demand on DarienTV.

Town Administrator Jennifer Charneski said there's currently a Request For Proposals (RFP) out for design work for early access, which has a focus on parking and is scaled down from a previous proposal.

In order to ensure the design and engineering work is accurate, a new land survey is needed, she explained, noting land surveyor Redniss & Mead would conduct the work.

The survey work would take about six to eight weeks to complete, Selectman Monica McNally said, adding the survey comprises "a good part of the island."

First Selectman Jon Zagrodzky said it was important to get the appropriation in place now so as to not hinder the timeline for early access. In his State of the Town remarks earlier this month, he said if all goes according to plan, construction on parking could begin late summer or early fall 2026, with completion as early as 2027.

"It's a good way to minimize surprises when we put this work out to bid and so it's super important to have that detailed analysis in place for construction. If we get it done now, it's well in advance of all that and we'll be ready to support that bid process. This is one of those must-haves that we really should move forward with now," Zagrodzky said Monday. "If we were to delay and just wait to try to do it as part of the RFP that's going out for this pre-construction bid document work, it's going to add a lot of time to this process."

McNally said getting the funding for the survey now would decrease the overall project timeline by at least two months.

"It could push out construction from the end of one year to the beginning of the next year, and the survey doesn't expire. The conditions don't change. This survey will be applicable for many, many, many, many, many, many years. Anything we want to do out there, we'll need to do this survey," McNally said. "This way, we can have it started and so when the construction team is hired, they're good to go. There's really a lot of reasons to do this now."

In the meantime, the town will work on setting up a shuttle service to Great Island so older residents and those with disabilities don't have to walk to the property.

Zagrodzky said earlier this month a shuttle service could be in place around May to coincide with the completion of the work to widen 23A, the access road to Great Island.

Watch Monday's Board of Selectmen meeting on DarienTV.