County to Madonna: Stop Cutting Through Preserved Land

The Queen of Pop doesn't rule the land in Suffolk.

The county planning department issued Madonna and a Bridgehampton construction company a cease-and-desist letter last month because the county said that an access road violates preservation law.

Wild Horses Farms, LLC — which owns Madonna's property at 10 Mitchell's Lane — and Farrell Building Company were ordered to stop using the property as a "thoroughfare for vehicular access not related to agricultural production," according to letters from Sarah Lansdale, the director of planning and environment, on Aug. 22.

Suffolk County’s farmland preservation program owns the development rights to the 24-acre property at the southeast corner of Scuttle Hole Road and Mitchell's Lane. The county and Southampton Town jointly purchased the development rights to protect the open space in January 2010.

"Your failure to comply herewith will result in prompt legal action," Lansdale said.

Before writing the letters, the county inspected the property. They claimed to have found it was being used as a thoroughfare to an adjacent property.

Madonna also owns a neighboring 26-acre horse farm, which she bought from Kelly Klein, the former wife of Calvin Klein, in late 2009, according to The New York Post. A year later, she purchased the 24-acre parcel.

This isn't the first time that Madonna has faced problems with the county over the property.

In August 2010, a stop-work ordered was issued after a paddock fence was built on protected land without permission. Later, the county issued a retroactive permit since the fence had already been erected. A year later, in June 2011, the permit conditions that had been laid out still hadn't been met, according to Southampton Town Planning Department documents at the time. The conditions including filing storm-water mitigation and erosion control plans and offering proof that a commercial horse boarding operation had been established within nine months from the permit issue date.

Edward Burke, who is representing Wild Horses Farms LLC, could not be reached for comment.