East Haven Explores Opening a Dog Park

The difficulty of obtaining flood plain regulatory approval has taken plans for an East Haven dog park off the fast track.

But the mayor’s office has been contacted by an East Haven resident offering to donate land for a dog park as long as it is named after the donor’s father, a dog lover.

Mayor April Capone said she couldn’t identify the potential donor yet, because officials in her office hadn’t determined if the land is suitable for a dog park.

She also said that was only one of the options the town was pursuing to open a dog park, where East Haven residents can come and walk their dogs together.

The proposal for establishing a dog park on land along Hudson Street had gotten far enough along for Town Engineer James Staunton to draft a plan to submit for a permit review by the Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Commission this month.

The site accesses Hudson Street across from the tennis courts near the middle school.

East Haven Animal Control Officer Owen Little described it as a fenced area several acres in size, with double gates to prevent dogs from getting out. A parking lot was another part of the plan.

Little said it would also be divided into two sections, one for smaller dogs and the other for larger dogs.

But before it could go forward, officials learned that part of the dog park land is in a regulated flood plain along the Farm River and would require additional approvals by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP, formerly the DEP), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"That’s one of the things that’s slowing it down," Little said.

"The dog park is being reconsidered from what was originally proposed," said Staunton.

He said submitting it to the wetlands commission has been postponed while he and other officials investigate whether the flood plain rules would be a problem.

Nevertheless, officials say they are sure a dog park would be a popular new recreational facility for East Haven.

Staunton said there have been a number of inquiries about creating a dog park over the years. "The interest was there," he said.

He said he also looked at dog parks in other communities, including Branford and Hamden, and they were quite popular in those towns.

One item that hadn’t been worked out was the sanitation issue, but Little said the town has dog dropping bag dispensers in other parks so he doubted that would be a hurdle.

"It should be a really good asset for the people of East Haven," he said.