Rock Hill Golf & Country Club in Manorville is the first privately owned public golf course to be rezoned as a "golf course district" under newly created Town of Brookhaven zoning designations, according to Newsday.
The longtime Manorville course follows two town-owned golf facilities — Mill Pond Golf Course in Medford and Rolling Oaks Golf Course in Rocky Point — in adopting the new zoning category, which is designed to protect golf properties from residential and commercial development. All three facilities were previously zoned residential.
As noted in a post earlier this year, in addition to the courses and clubhouses, Brookhaven's new districts allow for other on-site facilities like catering halls, restaurants and health clubs.
Brookhaven Town includes six other public golf courses currently unprotected by the new designation. Tallgrass Golf Course in Shoreham closed earlier this spring to be developed into a solar farm, and two others in or close to the town have been shuttered since 2010.