Long Island/In the Region - Recycling a Country Club - NYTimes.com IN the late 1940s, when Levitt & Sons, the builders of Levittown, started a more upscale subdivision of 668 homes in Roslyn Heights known as the Roslyn Country Club, it sweetened the appeal of a house or lot purchase with the promise of a neighborhood country club exclusively for residents" use, setting dues at $100 a year. The 10.5-acre Gold Coast pool and tennis club was the social center of the community, a place children could walk to. It also had a catering facility, now the Royalton. But six years ago, saddled with numerous lawsuits, Manouchehr Malekan, its owner, shut down the pool and the courts, much to the chagrin of residents. Along with golf courses, amenities like swimming and tennis have long been part of the suburban dream - even in Levittown itself, one swimming pool was built for every 1,000 houses - and their presence is tied to home values and desirability. Todd Zarin, the president of the Roslyn Country Club Civic Association, says that most of the nearly 700 residents "have a sense that we paid in our property values for a property located near an open space that was available for recreation." The biggest concern, of course, is having the recreational facilities available to their families and children, but people are also acutely aware "that it could have an effect on housing prices." Local real estate agents agree. The Roslyn Country Club subdivision, a prosperous-looking mix of original and expanded ranches interspersed with 4,000-square-foot newer homes costing as much as $2 million, has leafy, winding streets, and lots of about a third of an acre. But it has been hurt by the lack of a community pool, which contributed to a decline in property values during the last few years, said Maria Babaev, the managing director of the luxury portfolio for Laffey Fine Homes. Meanwhile, nearby, demand spiked for East Hills, a similar upscale community with a sprawling new village park offering pools, tennis and playground facilities. The park, open only to village residents, is supported by property taxes. "Young families like recreational facilities," Mr. Zarin said. East Hills focused the light on what's not here and what's there. A look at similar-sized houses in the two areas underscores the difference: a six-bedroom house in East Hills is listed at $2.09 million; a Roslyn Country Club house, just under $1.4 million. After considering taking the club from Mr. Malekan by eminent domain, the Town of North Hempstead announced this month that it planned to buy about seven acres of club property for $2 million within the next few weeks and upgrade it to a luxury town park to be known as Levitt Park. Noting that Mr. Malekan had "always said" he wanted to redevelop the club site commercially, Jon Kaiman, the town supervisor, said, "The town, watching this from outside in, saw this wonderful piece of property that might be lost forever if it is redeveloped." With no other town park in Roslyn Heights, he added, "to buy land and restore the recreational component, we could kill two birds with one stone." The park, he added, will be supported by pool memberships to be set at $800 to $1,000 a summer season. In a recent telephone interview, Mr. Malekan acknowledged that he was "about to come to an agreement with the town" on a section of the property, although he plans to keep the catering hall and "whatever is left for me that I can do legally." Mr. Zarin said the potential sale to the town "has a lot for us" and nearby neighbors. In Huntington, the key to a zoning change approved on March 12 - to allow construction of as many as 190 condominiums - was the preservation of the golf course and 150 acres in Cold Spring Hills, said A. J. Carter, a town spokesman. An "open space cluster district," the Residences at Oheka, is now planned between the Cold Spring Country Club and Oheka Castle, the wedding palace and hotel built in 1917 as the home of the financier Otto Herman Kahn. To make it happen, said Gary Melius, the owner of Oheka Castle, he bought 14 wooded acres from the country club. The proposed development "is on my front lawn," Mr. Melius said. We don't touch the golf course at all. The condominiums will be in four-story buildings. One-bedrooms will be priced from about $1 million, four-bedrooms almost $2.5 million. Plans also incorporate an outdoor pool, four tennis courts and a gym for residents. Because of the slow market, the tough financing, and the time it takes to prepare site plans and obtain other approvals, Mr. Melius said he expected the project to be five years in the making. Meanwhile, since he went to contract on the land with the club two years ago, guests staying in the 32 rooms at Oheka are permitted to play golf on the Cold Spring course. The economy has caused a similar slowdown in Dix Hills, where two proposals to turn golf courses into housing received subdivision approval but have gone no further, Mr. Carter said. A development called Golf Estates, envisioning 23 houses on 30.45 acres, was approved for the Dix Hills Country Club on Half Hollow Road, and a development called Tuscany Estates, allowing for 30 houses on 41.21 acres, was approved on the site of the shuttered Hollow Hills Golf Course on Ryder Avenue. Then there are the golf clubs that have somehow bucked the development tide altogether. After the Woodcrest Country Club in Muttontown, a lush 107-acre property, went bankrupt two years ago in the wake of the Bernard L. Madoff Ponzi scheme, it sold at auction for $19 million. There was speculation about possible subdivision in an area zoned for three-acre lots. Instead, its new owner, Vicenza Properties, buffed up the golf course and the 1916 clubhouse, now called the Mansion at Woodside Acres. "It is operating as a club," said Robert A. Wagner, a lawyer for the owner, adding that there were no plans for residential development. They have put a lot of money into it.