Living in Upper Brookville, NY: Five-Acre Zoning, Schools and Taxes

Upper Brookville is the youngest village in Oyster Bay and the second-youngest in Nassau County. Its land use rests on one rule, five-acre minimum lots, which the village defended up to the state’s highest court. It sits among the other North Shore towns, next to Brookville.

Is Upper Brookville wealthy? Population, housing and rents

Upper Brookville’s ACS 2020–2024 estimate counts 2,004 residents living in 652 occupied homes. The Census Bureau’s 5-year tables show 577 of those homes owner-occupied and 75 rented. The median home was built in 1980. Median gross rent is $1,750 a month.

Income and home value both hit the survey ceiling. The median household income is reported at $250,001 and the median owner-occupied value at $2,000,001, the top values the ACS reports, so neither gives an exact median. Older census figures give scale: median household income of $140,861 and per capita income of $65,254 in 2000, with a median age of 40. The 2020 census counted 1,786 people.

Five-acre zoning and how the village formed

Upper Brookville incorporated as a village on July 28, 1932. Eight taxpaying residents voted unanimously for incorporation at a July 16 referendum. It was the last village in Nassau County to incorporate until Atlantic Beach, in the Town of Hempstead, incorporated in 1962. The Census Bureau puts its area at 4.3 square miles, all land.

In a landmark 1980 case, the New York Court of Appeals upheld the village’s five-acre minimum lot zoning. The case, Robert E. Kurzius, Inc. v. Village of Upper Brookville, began when a landowner sought to have his holdings rezoned from five-acre to two-acre lots. The court agreed that preserving open space was a legitimate purpose. The ordinance would have been unconstitutional had it been enacted with an exclusionary purpose or had an unjustifiably exclusionary effect.

The landowner then asked the US Supreme Court to hear the case. It rejected the application for certiorari, which left the Court of Appeals ruling intact and the five-acre zone sustained, twenty years after its creation. The Coe residence at Planting Fields was completed in 1922.

Schools and libraries

Most Upper Brookville residents are in the Locust Valley School District. Locust Valley reports 1,754 K-12 public school students for 2024-25, with 81 English Language Learner students. Its NYSED profile shows a 94% attendance rate and a 3% suspension rate.

Residents in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich district attend a district with 1,310 K-12 students and 111 English Language Learner students in 2024-25. The North Shore school districts guide compares the neighboring systems, and each district’s NYSED report card is the primary data.

Upper Brookville has no library of its own, except for residents of the Oyster Bay-East Norwich district, who may use the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library. Residents are not taxed for local library service, so the State has approved limits on how Nassau libraries lend to them. A Nassau Library System Access Card is issued in person at the East Meadow or Levittown libraries.

Taxes: village bill, Town bills and relief

The village’s fiscal year runs from June 1 to May 31. Village tax bills are mailed yearly in late May, and payment is due without penalty on the first weekday of July. The 2025/2026 village payment was due Tuesday, July 1, and the village home page lists July 1, 2026 as the 2026/2027 due date.

The rest of the bill comes from the Town of Oyster Bay Receiver of Taxes, which bills more than 100,000 parcels and collects for the State, County, Town, special districts and school districts.

The Town allows a 40-day penalty-free period after each due date, then charges 1% per month retroactive to the original due date. Grievances go to the Nassau County Assessment Review Commission. The 2026 window closed March 31, 2026, after the County extended it. The Town’s page gives the usual grievance period as January 2 to March 1. The next opportunity to file follows the County’s next tentative assessment roll. Register for STAR school tax relief as soon as the home becomes your primary residence. Basic STAR is based on the first $30,000 of a home’s full value, with a $250,000 income limit for the exemption. Enhanced STAR for owners 65 and older has a $110,750 income limit for 2026-2027. County-wide mechanics are in Nassau County property taxes.

Rail and the Oyster Bay Branch

The Oyster Bay Branch splits from the Main Line just east of Mineola and runs north and east to Oyster Bay. It was built from Mineola north to Glen Head, the line’s first terminus, and opened in segments between 1865 and 1889. West of Mineola most trains originate or terminate at Jamaica, with some rush-hour trips ending at Penn Station. A temporary alternate plan for the branch ran weekdays from September 2 to November 9, 2025; that schedule is past and is not the current timetable. Use the TrainTime app for current schedules.

Stormwater and the harbor

Upper Brookville’s stormwater is discharged directly into surface waters, including Oyster Bay Harbor and Long Island Sound. The village’s municipal separate storm sewer system is permitted through NYSDEC, and the village maintains it. The system has no connection to a wastewater treatment plant. Its inlets are located all around the village, so runoff can pick up fertilizers, pesticides and lawn chemicals.

Village Hall and court

Village Hall is at 24 Wolver Hollow Road, Glen Head. Village Court is held at The Brookville Reformed Church, 2 Brookville Road, Glen Head.