When the 125-acre Cedarbrook Club in Old Brookville went up for sale in 2015, Long Island Business News reported that its 3-acre zoning "would likely yield somewhere between 30 and 34 homes." More than a decade later, the plan before the village Planning Board calls for 31 residential lots. The owners changed, the name changed to Royal Peninsula, and the market went through several cycles. The home count stayed inside the range published the week the club was listed.
For anyone weighing new construction on the Gold Coast, that is the useful lesson. In a village like Old Brookville, the zoning code sets the amount of new land before any developer arrives. What stays uncertain is how long the land takes to arrive and how it connects to the roads around it.
The arithmetic was fixed before anyone drew a plan
Old Brookville's zoning code makes detached single-family homes the principal permitted use in its R-3A, R-2A and R-1A residence districts. The minimum net lot area is three acres in R-3A, two acres in R-2A and one acre in R-1A, and the code adds building-area and setback limits that scale with lot size. When Cedarbrook went on the market in 2015, LIBN reported that it was zoned for single-family homes on 3-acre lots.
The applicant's traffic study, prepared by VHB for Triple Gold Development, LLC, describes a 125.19-acre site divided into 31 lots with a minimum of three acres each. That works out to a little over four gross acres per home once interior roads are counted. The study describes those roads as having a 50-foot right-of-way.
| 2015 listing coverage | 2026 proposal | |
|---|---|---|
| Acreage | 125 acres | 125.19 acres |
| Lot standard | 3-acre lots | 3-acre minimum |
| Home count | Estimated 30 to 34 | 31 lots |
| Site access | Private road off Cedar Swamp Road | New access directly on Cedar Swamp Road |
Only the last row changed in any meaningful way. For a buyer, this means the largest single new-construction opportunity in the village has had a predictable size for years. Its timing has been the unpredictable part.
Finding a buyer took longer than finding the number
Cedarbrook opened in 1961, according to Newsday's 2015 report on the listing. Long Island Business News reported that a group of Great Neck-based families bought the club for $12.5 million in 1987. The same report said the property had been shopped around on and off for roughly ten years before the 2015 listing, and earlier deals had fallen through. According to Newsday, the golf course was to keep operating until a sale closed.
Three years later the club was still a club. In May 2018, the Long Island Press reported that Cedarbrook's director planned to grow membership and catering, and that a deal to acquire the property had fallen through earlier that year.
LIBN's 2015 piece described the economics behind sales like this one. At clubs where annual dues and charges can pass $35,000, losing a dozen members can cost $500,000 a year in revenue. Two other Gold Coast clubs went the other way. The 107-acre Woodcrest Country Club in Muttontown sold at auction for $19 million in 2010, and the North Shore Country Club in Glen Head was bought for $12.5 million in 2009. Both new owners kept the courses in operation. Some large tracts stay as they are, and others take years to change hands.
Where the review stands this fall
The Old Brookville Planning Board is the lead agency under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The village has posted the full record on its Royal Peninsula project page. In date order, the record includes:
- January 9, 2025. The applicant's traffic impact study is dated. Its future analysis year is 2027.
- March 13, 2025. Preliminary review before the Planning Board, with a transcript posted.
- May 8, 2025. A Planning Board resolution, posted to the project page.
- October 15, 2025, and January 15, 2026. Planning Board public hearings, with transcripts posted.
- January 28, 2026. The NYSDEC Environmental Notice Bulletin announces the Draft Scope. The notice describes demolition of the golf course, clubhouse and tennis courts at 32 Oak Lane.
- August 2026. The village posts a Draft Environmental Impact Statement, a subdivision yield map, the deed and the environmental assessment form.
The Planning Board's October 8 meeting was canceled. The village calendar lists the next meeting for Thursday, November 12, at 6 p.m. The calendar entry does not say whether Royal Peninsula is on that agenda. A draft environmental impact statement is a step in the review, not an approval. The project page shows a subdivision still under review, with the paperwork building toward a decision that has not been made.
The first change neighbors would notice is the entrance
The Cedarbrook site has long been reached by a private road that connects to Cedar Swamp Road. The proposal removes that access and replaces it with a new entrance directly on Cedar Swamp Road, also known as Route 107. The traffic study places the new driveway across from the Bottle Buy and CVS driveway, and the Oak Lane access would no longer serve the site.
The applicant's study projects modest trip counts for 31 homes:
- Weekday morning peak hour: 22 trips, with 5 entering and 17 exiting
- Weekday evening peak hour: 29 trips, with 18 entering and 11 exiting
- Saturday midday peak hour: 29 trips, with 15 entering and 14 exiting
The study finds that the new driveway itself would operate without undue delay. It does flag one intersection nearby. The eastbound approach at Cedar Swamp Road and Glen Head Road would drop from level of service E to F in the evening peak, so the study recommends a left-turn lane there with 50 feet of storage and a 50-foot taper. It also recommends adjusting signal timing at Glen Cove Road and Glen Head Road. With those measures in place, the applicant's consultant concludes the impacts would not be significant. These are the applicant's own findings, and the Planning Board will weigh them as part of the environmental review.
Other road work is already underway on the same corridor. The New York State Department of Transportation is running a storm-drainage project of about $3.8 million on Route 107 between Route 25A and the Glen Cove Road merge. The project cleans culverts and an open channel and installs new basins. Work began this fall and is expected to finish in winter 2027/2028. For anyone looking at a home with frontage on Cedar Swamp Road, or one reached from it, both projects affect what that stretch of road will look like over the next few years.
How 31 lots compare with the county numbers
Countywide figures can make new supply look more plentiful than it is. According to OneKey MLS, Nassau County had 2,318 single-family homes in inventory in September 2026, down 1.7% from a year earlier. Homes spent 40 days on market and sold for 99.8% of their original list price. For the third quarter of 2026, the county median sale price was $880,000, up 2.9% year over year, on 2,569 closed sales. Newsday reported that September's median of $860,000 fell from August's record $910,000 but was still 2.1% higher than in September 2025. Newsday attributed part of the decline to rising mortgage costs and noted that a seasonal dip is normal.
These are county numbers. They describe a market that turns over thousands of homes a quarter. Old Brookville's new land comes in much smaller amounts, and it arrives on the timeline of a Planning Board review. If Royal Peninsula is approved, 31 three-acre lots would be one of the larger single additions of buildable land the village has seen in years. Until that happens, a buyer who wants new construction in Old Brookville is choosing among existing homes to renovate or replace, along with whatever individual parcels come to market.
This post is general information about public planning documents and zoning rules, not legal, tax or financial advice. Anyone weighing a specific property should confirm the details with an attorney or other qualified professional.
Questions buyers are asking
Has Royal Peninsula been approved? The public record does not show an approval. A Draft Scope was noticed in January 2026, and a Draft Environmental Impact Statement was posted to the village site in August 2026.
Who is the applicant? The applicant named in the traffic study is Triple Gold Development, LLC, with an address in Long Island City.
Where can I read the documents myself? The village posts the full set on its Royal Peninsula Subdivision page, including the yield map, the traffic study and the hearing transcripts.
If you own on or near Cedar Swamp Road, or you are deciding whether to wait for new lots or buy an existing Old Brookville home now, Andrea Sorrentino and the team can walk you through how a project like Royal Peninsula could affect your timing and your pricing. Request a Confidential Valuation to start that conversation.
