TOMS RIVER - A former horse farm will soon be the township's newest open space purchase.

Toms River paid $800,000 for the former West Wind Stable, an 8-acre farm on Cox Cro Road. Township Administrator Don Guardian said the property will likely continue to be used as a horse farm.

The township is expected to close on the purchase shortly, Guardian said.

Guardian said Toms River has received a proposal from Manchester-based Chariot Riders Inc., which provides therapeutic horseback riding for mentally and physically challenged individuals.

The group would like to run a therapeutic riding program at the Cox Cro location, he said.

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The township also could also use the farm to provide riding lessons for residents, or stall space for Toms River horse owners to stable their steeds, Guardian said.

The horse farm purchase was first approved in October 2016, when the Township Council agreed to pay $900,000 for the property.

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Guardian said Tuesday that some environmental clean-up is necessary at the farm, which is located at 1270 Cox Cro Road. A riding arena on the farm is still in "pretty good shape" he said, but some structures on the property may need to be demolished.

The horse farm was in foreclosure when the township began negotiations to acquire the property. It shut down in 2014, after the sudden death of owner Kenneth Fordney in 2013.

The township has been aggressively seeking to purchase open space in northern Toms River, where more than 1,400 homes are either under construction or approved to be built.

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The character of the once rural area has changed dramatically in the past decade, as housing has appeared on formerly wooded lots or on the sites of old poultry farms.

The bold open space purchase plans were dealt a setback in November, when voters rejected a referendum that would have doubled Toms River's open space tax from 1.5 cents to 3 cents per $100 of assessed property value.

More than 60 percent of voters rejected the tax increase. Learn more about the council's open space purchase plans in the video above this story.

Also in 2016, the council approved the purchase of about 56 acres of property off Route 9, between Riverwood Drive and Cox Cro Road, for $10.3 million. But the acquisition has been delayed as the township must use eminent domain to buy about 35 of the 56 acres.

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A developer had proposed building about 100 townhouse units and 80,000-square-feet of commercial space on a portion of the property that once housed a chicken farm.

Jean Mikle: 732-643-4050, @jeanmikle, jmikle@gannettnj.com