Depew Park

New York

Nov 27

Written By Sustainable Digital

Location
Peekskill, NY

Status
Designing

Construction Completion
Estimated 2027

Site Area
176-acres

Construction Cost
$2M for Phase 1

People Served
34,000

Design Consultants
Saratoga Associates

Special Features
Upgraded recreational facilities, connection to Blue Mountain Reservation, trail and wayfinding improvements

At 176 acres, Peekskill’s Depew Park is the largest park in the city by a sizable margin. While it offers a great variety of passive and active recreation facilities, use is severely hampered by their poor condition, lack of relevancy to current demographics, confusing signage, and the lack of a circulation system which leaves the park disjointed and dangerous for pedestrians. While the City has tried to make discreet repairs recently, what is most needed is a comprehensive and coordinated plan to refurbish the park overall.

Depew is also immediately adjacent to Westchester County’s 1,538-acre Blue Mountain Reservation but the juncture between the two is underused and inaccessible. The trails are unmarked and impassable and there are no programs to introduce urban dwellers to nature. The revitalization of Depew Park provides a rare chance to connect a diverse urban community with the outdoors; a population that has lacked access to nature and often felt unwelcome in the wilderness.

New City Parks (NCP) is working with the City to completely upgrade Depew, replacing broken-down basketball, tennis, and barbecue facilities, and adding soccer opportunities and gathering spaces. We will also create internal pathway connections between what are now disparate park areas, making the park, which is a walkable distance from downtown, bike and pedestrian friendly.

By pulling in a range of community partners, we plan to create new trails, including an accessible forest entry path and a family nature trail, as well as develop welcoming trailheads with kiosks and panels and better signage within Depew. These improvements offer an opportunity to anchor and leverage a larger array of trail network improvements in the County preserve and initiate nature/adventure programs to cultivate interest, comfort, and familiarity with hiking.

NCP recently completed a concept plan to guide Depew’s revitalization and is poised to embark on an initial phase of improvements in 2025 while refining plans with community stakeholders. Our vision is that Depew Park can once again be a hub of community life for the city’s growing and diverse population.