Officials drop plan to seize Islandia horse farm through eminent domain

Islandia Village officials have backed off a plan to use eminent domain to seize property belonging to a nonprofit horse therapy farm in order to transform it into a truck and public works yard. The owners of the plot only heard about the officials’ intentions when a reporter called them about it. At the time, Pal-O-Mine Equestrian was in contract to buy the property and ended up closing the deal two weeks later. With that plot, the nonprofit owns 13 acres spanning four contiguous properties. Though town officials have gone in another direction, they said they still would like a public works yard like the one they’d planned to put there in order to respond faster to storm-related emergencies. They are considering other properties now. [Newsday]