Newburgh Wants a Park was a community campaign (2020–2023) to make the 109 acres at Crystal Lake and the Snake Hill corridor Newburgh’s largest public park. Outdoor Promise was one of 29 partner organizations behind it. The campaign is no longer active; here is what it did and where the question stands.
Why it mattered
Crystal Lake sits in Ward 3, the only ward in Newburgh without a real park: less than one acre of parkland for a neighborhood where 71 percent of residents are people of color. Across the whole city, parks cover 2.8 percent of the land; planners recommend 12.5. Making these 109 acres a park would more than double Newburgh’s parkland.
The City already owns the land. What it lacks is protection: the zoning allows building on it. The campaign asked the City to rezone the land and make it a park permanently, so that a future City Council could not simply change its mind.
What the campaign did
- Brought together 29 community partners, including Scenic Hudson, Riverkeeper, Newburgh Sanctuary and Outdoor Promise.
- Collected more than 1,000 petition signatures; in a community survey, 98 percent of residents said yes to the park.
- In December 2023, presented its case to the City with a community brief.
Where it stands
In 2023 the City paid for a survey of the land and called it “an important first step.” The City Council has made the park a priority. The decision is in the Council’s hands, and no vote to designate the park has happened yet. Meanwhile the land is in use: Newburgh Sanctuary grows its healing gardens here, the trails have been open since 2018, and Crystal Lake is a trailhead of the Quassaick Creek Greenway.
Crystal Lake is the last stop of Newburgh's Water: Flowing Through Time, our free self-guided tour of the city’s water story, and the site of the yearly Quassaick Creekfest.
Come see the lake.
Join a free community adventure, or walk the Crystal Lake stop of the water tour on your own.
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