Centre Island trustees compromise on horse request from the Joels

Centre Island officials finished 2020 with the passage of measures to permit horse stables and to restrict the use of leaf blowers on weekends.

Village trustees adopted the regulations to allow horses, ponies and equine livestock to be housed and maintained on private property at their Dec. 16 meeting after making changes following hearings in February and November on the law. The village drafted the law in response to requests from singer-songwriter Billy Joel and his wife, Alexis, who plan to build a stable on their estate.

The final version permits residents to maintain up to six horses if they have a minimum of five acres of property. The original proposal would have allowed up to 12 horses and required a minimum of three acres of property.

"We had a lot of people that were very concerned that they would be polluting the harbor and they would be polluting the underground water," Mayor Larry Schmidlapp said in an interview. "We basically made the law strict enough that all that stuff is contained," he said, referring to animal waste produced at stables.

Schmidlapp said although the rules were created at the request of the Joels, "We have to do these laws so that they apply to everybody."

Anthony Guardino of Hauppauge-based Farrell Fritz PC said at the November hearing that the Joels had hired H2M Engineering and stable management experts to address resident concerns over pollution and mitigate any potential nuisances from the horses, according to meeting minutes. They expanded their estate by purchasing an adjacent property in 2018 with the intention of building a stable, Guardino said at the hearing. Alexis Joel said at the hearing that the horses would be there six months a year for her personal enjoyment, according to meeting minutes.

The village board also amended its noise code at the Dec. 16 meeting to prohibit use of leaf blowers and tree removal on weekends, Schmidlapp said.

"Leaf blowers go on forever and ever," Schmidlapp said. "It really gets to you after a while."

Leaf blowers can still be used during the week. Tree removal is also restricted on weekends except in emergencies.

In such instances, "All they have to do is ask the mayor, or the deputy mayor, for permission and it’s granted," Schmidlapp said. "I mean if there was a storm like we had last weekend and trees came down all over the place, we certainly wouldn’t be forbidding them to cut them up."