Preserve Cherry Lawn Park as Open Space and Keep our Dogs Walking

The results of the town survey by Weston & Sampson upon the which the Master Plan is based clearly shows that most respondents requested more open space/natural areas and more trails and pathways. Both these desires coincide with our wishes as dog walkers at Cherry Lawn. Over 50% of households who responded to the survey own dogs and 29% participate in walking for exercise. The majority of dog walkers who use Cherry Lawn want to walk and exercise their dogs at the same time. An enclosed dog park will negate this benefit and also ruin the beautiful open aspect of the park. As far as we are aware, no one has complained about our dog walking activities and our allotted off leash hours do not generally overlap with other park activities. We are a largely self-regulated group of people, respectful of other park users (most of us have our own children) and aware of how our behavior will impact others. This is not a case of asking the Commission not to do something in our back yard and put it elsewhere, we are asking you not to do anything! We respectfully ask to you to consider our wishes to walk our dogs off leash when you consider the final plans for all the parks in Darien.