Oyster Bay Town Board OKs $100G more for eminent domain fight

The Oyster Bay Town Board last week approved an additional $100,000 in legal fees for a more than decade-old eminent domain case in Farmingdale.

The legal fees are for Bracken Margolin Besunder LLP, an Islandia law firm representing the town over its acquisition of 55 Motor Ave., a former defense and aerospace industrial site known as the Liberty Industrial Finishing site.

Oyster Bay acquired the 14-acre parcel, a Superfund site next to Ellsworth W. Allen Park, in 2003 through condemnation. Property records show the town paid $1.75 million for the land.

The town subsequently also acquired an adjacent property.

The former owners of 55 Motor Avenue Company LLC — Jefry Rosmarin, Cubbies Properties LLC and J. Jay Tanenbaum — contested the price the town paid.

On Dec. 22, State Supreme Court Judge Thomas Adams ordered the town to pay the former owners $20.7 million with interest, less any payments already made, following an 18-day trial that concluded in June.

Deputy Town Attorney Frank Scalera said at last week’s town board meeting that the initial payment was effectively a down payment. He did not mention Adams’ order but indicated that the case was not resolved.

“There’s going to be a little battle of the experts and the court’s going to make the final determination,” Scalera said in response to a question from a Massapequa resident, Robert Ripp.

Oyster Bay officials did not respond to a request by Newsday for a tally of legal fees paid for the case, which began in 2003. Town records show that since 2008, the board has approved $500,000, including last week’s approval, for legal fees related to the site.