This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The town gave approval to the West Hartford Dog Park Coalition to set up a temporary dog park at the St. Brigid School property, which will eventually be turned into the town’s new community center.

Dogs swim at the Beachland Park pool last summer.

WEST HARTFORD — Dog owners in town will again have access to a dog park — for now.

On Wednesday night, the town’s planning and zoning commission gave approval to members of the West Hartford Dog Park Coalition to use space behind the former St. Brigid School at 100 Mayflower St. as a temporary dog park.

The town-owned land is slated to eventually become a new community center, encompassing the senior center, Faxon Library branch, teen center and more.

But until then, dogs and their owners will have access to a piece of land behind the school that backs up to Beachland Park.

“When I got up there to give the initial presentation, I first turned to the audience and I asked our supporters to stand,” said David Coleman, co-president of the coalition. “Virtually the entire room stood up. They spoke passionately about how they want a dog park in town.”

Coleman said this is the coalition’s “show-me” moment. They’ve been searching for over a decade for a permanent location for a dog park in West Hartford, and they believe the new community center would be perfect.

“It’s kind of a show-me moment for us to show the town that look, so many other towns do this,” Coleman said. “Just a few weeks ago, Newington opened up a dog park. The trend is that it’s growing in popularity. There are 50 in Connecticut alone. The trend is that dog parks are popular and by and large they work. We’re very hopeful this one will work.”

Coleman said the town has asked the coalition to maintain a waste management report to show how the park is doing with refuse. The town will be supplying and emptying a garbage can, Coleman said.

“We think we will keep it clean and well-run,” Coleman said. “We’ve been in touch with the town animal control officer. We even have what we’re calling, for a lack of a better word, a poop patrol. They regularly go around and pick up poop bags that people have left behind just trying to keep it clean and maintained. It will be an attractive and safe fun place for dogs and their owners to socialize.”

Coleman said the group anticipated receiving approval for the dog park, so they’ve already contacted vendors to rent fencing and other materials.

He hopes the park will be open by the end of September.

“We want to start it as soon as possible,” Coleman said. “We’re in the final stages of signing off on the fence rental. We’re in the process of making a final decision on that. They’ve rendered drawings on where the fence will be. The area will be cordoned off for big dogs and small dogs with double gates. There’s a lot of detail that goes into it. We’re working out all those details. We’re already pretty far along.”

The park, Coleman said, will exist there until construction begins on the new community center. He hopes they can return permanently once the center is finished.

“We’ll go until it becomes a construction site,” Coleman said. “At that point, we’ll have to be on the road again looking for another location which will hopefully be temporary.”