NORWICH — Aiming to satisfy both dog owners and residents who would rather not socialize with off-leash dogs, the Selectboard unanimously passed an animal control ordinance last week.
The decision last Wednesday came after four months of debate and nine revisions.
“I feel like everybody really got something that they wanted,” Selectboard member Matt Swett said in a phone interview Monday.
The Selectboard sought to create a new animal control ordinance with tighter regulations than the 2005 policies previously on the books in response to several incidents over the last 20 years of off-leash dogs misbehaving, including two people being bitten by off-leash dogs at Huntley Meadows within the past year.
At the crux of the debates, which started in April, was Section 13 of the new ordinance. The section requires dogs to be leashed on Gile Mountain trail, Milton Frye Nature Area, part of Blue Ribbon Connector Trail and the base of Ballard Trail, where the former town pool was located.
Most controversially, Section 13 bans dogs from the Huntley Meadows playing fields while sports are in season and initially required them to be on a leash on all other parts of the meadow at all times.
Huntley Meadows, a recreation area on Turnpike Road with several sports fields, a handful of tennis courts and a playground, is often frequented by dog owners who let their pets roam free on the meadow.
To accommodate dog owners, the recreation department floated the idea of building a large fenced-in dog park at Huntley Meadows so that dogs could roam freely yet still be contained. However after opposition from dog owners and those who live near Huntley Meadows, the town decided not to move forward with those plans at this time, Swett said.
In an effort to settle the controversy, the board passed a set of “dog rules” for Huntley Meadows in tandem with the new ordinance. The rules set times for when dogs can and cannot be off-leash at the meadow.
“These hours are meant to represent times that both dog owners can have some morning, evening and afternoon off-leash time and specify times when dogs are guaranteed on-leash because people have said they would rather walk down there at times when they know, without questions, dogs are going to be on-leash,” Swett, who was tasked with drafting the rules, said during Wednesday’s meeting.
From April 16 to Nov. 30, dogs must be on-leash on weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon and 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. On weekends, dogs must be leashed from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
From Dec. 1 to April 15, dogs must be on-leash on weekdays and weekends 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Swett chose the times by talking with both dog owners and non-dog owners who like to go to Huntley, he said. In an attempt to address negative human-person dog encounters, dogs are required to be leashed during Huntley’s busier hours, Swett said.
Off-leash dogs are required to be “under voice control…, be within sight of their owner and should not approach another person or pet without their permission,” the rules state.
During the development of the new ordinance and rules, dog owners voiced their opposition to requiring dogs be leashed at Huntley and non-dog owners voiced their support for the restrictions. There were signs on Wednesday that both sides were satisfied.
Resident Alexa Manning, who had been an outspoken dog owner throughout the entire process, thanked Swett at Wednesday’s meeting. “There’s some really good work here that I think is hopefully going to move this very, very, very long process forward,” she said in the recording of the meeting.
Stephanie Wolff, who has lived on Turnpike Road adjacent to Huntley Meadows for 14 years and said at a spring meeting that she often hears “loud, sustained barking and yelling of owners,” praised the board and fellow community members for the compromise at Wednesday’s meeting. “I think these rules are reasonable,” she said.
The Police Department will be responsible for enforcing on-leash hours.
“The officers may notice violations during routine patrols or in following up on citizen complaints,” Selectboard Chairwoman Mary Layton said. “The first level of enforcement is ‘education’ and may include a warning.”
Additional offenses could result in fines starting at $50, according to the new ordinance.
The Recreation Department plans to post the new rules, which include maps of the fields indicating which ones are in season, at Huntley Meadows and on the department’s website.
If no petition opposing the ordinance is filed within 60 days of it being passed, the new animal control ordinance and rules for Huntley Meadows will go into effect in late-September.
