Oyster Bay may rezone golf courses to scale back housing potential

Oyster Bay officials are considering zoning changes that would lower the number of single-family homes that can be built on at least two private golf courses in the town if the properties are sold.

A wider trend of golf course redevelopment, driven by declining membership and financial challenges, prompted the town to study the zoning of all Oyster Bay golf course properties and how more restrictions could protect open space, town attorney Frank Scalera said during a meeting last week.

The study, which environmental firm Nelson, Pope & Voorhis LLC carried out, included six private courses and three public courses in the town. It excluded only a still-operating Massapequa golf course the town board voted in 2021 to seize by eminent domain, a court process that remains ongoing.

The study issued site-specific zoning recommendation changes for two private courses but said four other private courses should stay within their current zoning classifications, John Ellsworth, an environmental consultant for Oyster Bay, said at the Jan. 23 town board meeting.

He said the town's public courses aren't at a high risk for development.

The study said the zoning of those public links — the Town of Oyster Bay Golf Course in Woodbury, the nine-hole golf course at Cantiague Park and the Bethpage State Park Golf Course — should only change from industrial to recreational to match their current uses.

The two private courses the study targeted for zoning changes aimed at further restricting development were Glenwood Landing-based North Shore Country Club and Engineers Country Club, most of which is in Roslyn Harbor.

The study's recommendation for North Shore Country Club's 83 acres would be to change zoning that allows one home every half-acre to instead allow one home every 2 acres — reducing the number of possible single-family home lots from 127 to 25.

The same 2-acre zoning change was recommended for the four acres of Engineers Country Club that are within the Town of Oyster Bay. Zoning there now allows for one single-family lot every 0.16 acre. 

There aren't any plans before the town right now for any of the golf courses within the town's jurisdiction to be developed for housing, according to Oyster Bay spokeswoman Marta Kane.

But Allan Hyman, a lawyer for North Shore Country Club, told town board members last week the course likely would be sold for such a purpose in the future and argued against any zoning change.

“When it is sold, the difference between a half-acre zone and a two-acre zone is going to have an impact on the value of this property,” Hyman said.

Anthony Guardino, a lawyer representing developer RXR, which owns Engineers Country Club, asked town officials to exclude that property from any zoning changes since a proposal to build housing is pending before Roslyn, where most of the golf course is located. The links are still in operation.

Under that pending development plan, none of the 4 acres within the Town Oyster Bay would be developed, Guardino said. He added that changes to Oyster Bay's zoning could put the developer's current deal in “jeopardy.” 

The study didn't recommend any specific zoning changes for the town's four other private golf courses. They are:

Glen Head Country Club, which has 2-acre zoning;, Nassau Country Club in Locust Valley, which has 1-acre zoning;, Pine Hollow Country Club in East Norwich, which has 5-acre zoning; and, Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, which has 5-acre zoning, .

But the study did recommend overall that the town prohibit any future building on areas of private golf courses that have steep slopes and environmental features like wetlands. Such a zoning change would affect about 35 acres within the town's jurisdiction on four private courses, the study showed.

“The Town of Oyster Bay has long been a leader in open space preservation and environmental protection, and these proposed changes would permanently protect acres of environmentally sensitive property from overdevelopment,” Kane, the town spokeswoman, said in a statement.

She said public comment on the proposed zoning changes will remain open for about a month before town legislators vote on it.

Lisa Cashman, associate director of the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor, expressed her support for the changes at the recent meeting and said it was important to consider water supply when discussing development. 

“Frequently, when we talk about development, we talk about if we have the physical capacity to connect to the lines — but not if there’s going to be enough drinking water, which is a real, true concern of development moving into the future,” she said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the status of an eminent domain case Oyster Bay brought against a town golf course.