The five towns of Wilton, Norwalk, Redding, Ridgefield and Danbury are one step closer to getting the green light for their proposed greenway.

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection recently approved the application for an $180,000 grant for a trail that would link the five towns.   The 17-mile long trail would extend from the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk to the south portion of Danbury. The greenway could reduce greenhouse gases, provide bike and jogging paths, and allow for more recreation.

The DEP's Recreational Trails Grant Program will announce its final decision for Project Greenway in March.

"We're optimistic," said Pat Sesto, director of Wilton's Department of Environmental Affairs and a member of the Greenway Commission.  "This is the first, best funding opportunity that came along. But, if for some reason it falls through, the towns will pursue another grant."

In 1971 several Wilton residents looked at the area alongside Route 7 and envisioned a park, or network of trails filling the right-of-way. Then in 1994, a second professional study revealed various uses for such a trail as well as charting the challenges to building it.

The current proposal would follow the Norwalk River Valley Trail. Some of the proposed greenway is already in use: Allen's Meadows and even a Public Works storage yard are located on the ROW.

It might deviate in some places to come closer to business districts such as Wilton Center, but nothing has been decided, Sesto said.  The trail could be a footpath, a bike path, or some combination thereof.

Neither snow nor sleet prevented the Greenway Commission from meeting Friday.  They discussed the next steps, which include approval from the Federal Highway Administration and the State Historical Commission.

If those agencies approve the application, the towns can hire a professional consultant to determine how to best incorporate the towns' desires with the reality of the towns' terrain.

"The biggest impetus to getting our rears in gear was to have the limitations on what the right of way could be used for lifted," Sesto said. "The DOT can do what it wants with the land now– sell it off, develop it."

The towns pushed, ahead not wanting to see strip malls fill the more than 800 acres along the right of way now under DOT control.

The projected greenway would actually follow Route 7 and the Norwalk River, a very old thoroughfare, said Patrice Gillespie, member of Wilton conservation commission.

"It's a very historical north-south route.  Inns and taverns have been preserved all along the way for centuries.  So it's a really great project," Gillespie said.

All the administrative tasks have left the commission little time to reach out the public. Sesto said the commission is concerned the public might feel out of the loop.

"The next phase will be asking the public what it wants," said Sesto. "We need to match the wants with reality. Some portions of the trail might be able to be paved and some might be better suited to a footpath."