"This is the beginning of the process. We're looking at the scoping document which gives the outline of what needs to be studied for this board and other boards to be able to make decisions on the merits of this project."
That was said from the dais at the end of the Rye Brook Board of Trustees meeting on September 22, 2026, and you can hear it on the Village's meeting video. "The beginning" is accurate. That same night, though, the board closed public comment on the scoping outline for 975 Anderson Hill Road, the former Doral Arrowwood grounds. The list of questions the environmental review has to answer is now mostly set. The next point where residents can speak up is on the answers, once a Draft Environmental Impact Statement exists. Nobody has set a date for that document yet.
For anyone driving Anderson Hill Road past the cleared land, this means the review has already finished deciding what to study, and the arguments over the buildings themselves are still to come.
From a 393-room hotel to an 834-unit proposal
The old use is the yardstick for the new one. According to Westfair Communications, the Doral Arrowwood Hotel and Conference Center had a 393-room hotel, a 110,000-square-foot conference center, a nine-hole golf course, indoor sports facilities and 718 parking spaces. It closed in 2020, and the buildings have since been demolished.
Baltimore-based Erickson Living now proposes an 834-unit continuing care retirement community on the 82.9-acre site. That breaks down as 750 independent living units and 84 assisted living and memory care units. A plan from the previous owner, Cohen Brothers Realty, for a resort plus homes never moved forward. Erickson runs 24 communities in 11 states, and Westfair reports this would be its first in New York.
The ownership history is listed in the September 22 Board of Trustees agenda packet:
- October 18, 2021: KSB Arrowwood Realty Corp. to Cohen Purchase Building Company LLC, $8,000,000
- December 20, 2021: Referee's deed to Cohen Purchase Building Company LLC, $26,104,000
- August 4, 2026: Cohen Purchase Building Company LLC to ELP Rye Brook, LLC, $43,726,340 for six parcels
Erickson now owns the land. Whatever happens next, the question in front of the Village is what this owner is allowed to build. Whether someone will develop the site is already settled.
Three unit counts in the same file
Erickson is asking Rye Brook to amend its Zoning Ordinance for a Planned Unit Development zone that would govern the site. Speaking for the applicant, Anthony Veneziano of Armonk-based Veneziano & Associates gave Westfair three numbers: "The as-of-right plan under the PUD is 490 senior living units. We're above that. Our original plan was 1,034 units."
| Figure | What it represents |
|---|---|
| 490 units | What the applicant describes as as-of-right under the PUD |
| 834 units | The current proposal |
| 1,034 units | Erickson's original plan |
The gap between 490 and 834 is what the zoning amendment and the environmental review are about. In the same Westfair report, Veneziano said the average entry age would be 80 and the average resident age 85. He said traffic would be lower than it was under Arrowwood, and that the Village would collect a projected $8.1 million a year in taxes at full build. All of these are the applicant's projections. The environmental review exists to test claims like these. The scope lists traffic and transportation as a topic to study.
Affordability is another gap. Veneziano told Westfair the developer wants 5% of the units priced to meet Rye Brook's affordable housing requirement. The Village requires 10%.
What the scope says neighbors will see
The draft scoping document, dated September 18, 2026, explains how the applicant plans to handle the parts of the site closest to its neighbors. Lower buildings would sit next to Doral Greens and Kingfield. Landscaping and berms would run between the site and those communities. The taller buildings would go at the lowest elevations, farthest from homes. Most residential buildings would be four stories. The community hubs would be two and three stories, and the five-story buildings would sit at the site's low point.
The scope also spells out how those claims will be checked. The visual study has to show views into the site in "leaf-off" conditions, once the trees are bare. It also has to discuss the Village's Anderson Hill Road Scenic Road Overlay District. These are the vantage points it names:
- Anderson Hill Road at the southwest corner of the site
- Anderson Hill Road between that corner and the site driveway
- Anderson Hill Road at the driveway
- Anderson Hill Road at the southeast corner
- Kingfield, including the Kingfield walking trail, which runs from the southern end of Lavender Lane west to the Blind Brook
- Doral Greens
The scope notes that the Kingfield trail and the Doral Greens viewpoints are not publicly accessible, and it includes them anyway. If the trail or a particular street matters to you, this list is your guarantee that the Draft EIS will have to show the view from there. A view left off the list would not get the same treatment.
Access would stay largely as it is now. The main entrance would use the existing curb cut on Anderson Hill Road, and the secondary access shared with Doral Greens would remain. One new curb cut is proposed, for a temporary marketing center at the front of the site.
The open space question goes back to 1991
The fairways in the north and east of the property have the most history behind them. The proposal would permanently preserve the undeveloped northern and eastern areas, which used to be golf course fairways and greens. The site would be split into four lots: one for the retirement community, two for open space protected by an easement, and one for a Village recreation use.
The agenda packet includes an August 20, 1991 agreement between KSB Arrowwood Realty and the Village about 20 "non-delineated" acres of golf course open space. Non-delineated means the acreage was promised but its boundaries were never drawn. At the September 22 hearing, a former village trustee raised questions about ownership entities, parcel acreage and what would happen to open-space land connected to Doral Greens. The scope notes that part of the property lies in the Town of Harrison and in Connecticut, outside the Village's jurisdiction.
The board's answer was that the covenant area will be delineated and preserved under the proposal. It also said every acreage figure in the scoping document must be verified in the EIS. So the 20 acres that were never mapped in 1991 would finally get boundaries through this review.
A speaker connected to Kingfield said at the hearing that Kingfield residents had not attended earlier meetings, and objected to closing the comment period. The board closed it anyway.
The front parcel could come back to the Village
One piece of the plan is more of an offer than a request. The temporary marketing center on Anderson Hill Road would be used until the first phase is finished and occupied. After that, the applicant proposes to donate the building and the land around it, including parking and amenities, to the Village for recreation. At the hearing, this was described as an offer of dedication. The parcel would go to Rye Brook "if Rye Brook chooses to accept it." Nothing has been accepted, and nothing has been designed yet.
Timing matters here. The marketing center would only change hands after the first phase. According to Westfair, that phase covers about 300 independent living units, roughly 50,000 square feet of amenity space in a community hub, and most of the site grading and infrastructure. Full buildout is estimated at six to seven years.
The calendar from here
These are the dated steps so far and the ones still open:
- July 28, 2026: The Village Board adopted its SEQRA Determination of Significance.
- August 4, 2026: The deed transferred to ELP Rye Brook, LLC.
- September 18, 2026: A revised draft scope was filed with redlines.
- September 22, 2026: Public comment on the scope closed at the meeting at 938 King Street. The scope was not adopted that night.
- October 13 and October 27, 2026: These are the next Board of Trustees meetings on the Village meeting schedule. October 13 starts at 7:30 p.m. The September 22 agenda also lists both October dates as the board's next meetings. At the September hearing, trustees said a revised scope would likely come back at the first October meeting for possible adoption.
- After adoption: The applicant researches and drafts the DEIS. No submission date has been announced.
As of October 12, the scope is still a draft. The board itself noted on September 22 that it stays a draft until it is adopted. The Planning Board's October 8 agenda covered a Dorchester Drive matter, not this site. The site will look the same for a while. The next document to watch is the Draft EIS. It will carry the traffic analysis, the leaf-off views from Lavender Lane and Anderson Hill Road, and the verified open-space acreage.
Andrew Rogovic is a Rye Brook native who keeps track of the Anderson Hill Road corridor. If you own near Anderson Hill Road, Doral Greens or Kingfield and want to talk through what the review timeline could mean for your plans, reach out through Andrew Rogovic or request a free home valuation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
