Peekskill Considers Mountain Biking in Depew Park
Reprinted with permission of Peekskill Herald. (c) 2026. All rights reserved.
“Bicycle Sundays in Depew Park” could soon turn into “Bicycle Everyday” under a proposal from the Putnam-Westchester Mountain Biking Association to permit mountain biking in Depew Park.
On Tuesday, Sept. 8, the Putnam-Westchester Mountain Biking Association, a non-profit advocacy group promoting recreational use of mountain bikes on trails, outlined its vision to the Peekskill Common Council for mountain biking at the 176-acre park.
John Ford, Putnam-Westchester Mountain Biking Association vice president and a Peekskill resident, said a lot of kids in the city cannot afford nice bikes but could be supported by a program called the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), which introduces 5- to 12-year-olds to mountain biking and holds races that typically attract 200 to 400 kids and family members.
“Jason Cairo, the director of NICA for 25 years, is champing at the bit to have a venue in the lower Hudson Valley,” Ford said. “[With] the NICA program, the youth volunteer in return, and they just become part of the community, so it would be great to have that in Peekskill.”
Putnam Valley resident and Putnam-Westchester Mountain Biking Association president Sam Lee said in April that the New York Jersey Trail Conference made a formal recommendation for the City of Peekskill to sanction and mark mountain bike trails based on current use and to partner with the Putnam-Westchester Mountain Biking Association. The Putnam-Westchester Mountain Biking Association submitted a maintenance plan for the trails to Peekskill Parks & Recreation’s head, Johnathan Zamora, and city staff.
“The beauty of Depew and Blue Mountain is that a lot of the trail is just on bedrock and a lot of the trail happens to be that exposed rock,” Lee said. “So there’s very minimal erosion. Where there is erosion [there] might be low spots, muddy spots, and that’s why we need some sort of maintenance plan.”
Peekskill Mayor Vivian McKenzie said the request did not include the building of new trails, but rather marking and maintaining trails to ensure they’re rideable.
As part of the request, the Putnam-Westchester Mountain Biking Association is asking the city to repeal a law prohibiting pedal bikes in Depew Park, and also lump in Class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes, which respond to human pedaling and are limited to 20 miles per hour. The request does not include Class 2 e-bikes, which use a throttle that does not require consistent pedaling, or Class 3 e-bikes, which are throttle-only.
“The people that buy these Class 1 pedal-assist mountain bikes are people who like regular mountain biking and they are looking for the next type of bike that can keep them going if their health is compromised, if they have some orthopedic issues or their fitness isn’t good,” Lee said.
Some members of the Common Council reviewing amendments to e-bike city code on safety issues have reservations about e-bike usage in Depew Park, but were more favorable to the Class 1 e-bike over the throttle-based e-bikes.
Peekskill Council Member Darren Rigger said he believes the city should move forward quickly in repealing the law to enable the Putnam-Westchester Mountain Biking Association to become activated, noting there is already frequent mountain biking in Depew Park that has not been enforced. Mayor McKenzie said that rather than “haphazardly” pushing it through, the council should discuss it further and seek legal guidance so it is done correctly the first time.
Are bicycles allowed on waterfront trails?
Despite riverfront signage to the contrary, Peekskill Director of Planning Carol Samol said city staff have pointed out that the trails at the waterfront were built to allow bicycles.
Samol said the city received grant dollars to build out the trail at the riverfront, so it can be part of the county’s multi-use trails system.
“E-bikes are a different animal admittedly, but for pedal bikes we should be allowing that,” Samol said. “It would be helpful to have signage [indicating] where they’re allowed and not allowed.”
Asked by Peekskill Council Member Kathleen Talbot if the grant funding included Peekskill Landing, which was funded through a partnership between the city and non-profit Scenic Hudson, Samol said she would look into it.
McKenzie said the city has a large bicycle community and needs to be open-minded about how it moves forward. She said it was important the city hold public hearings to learn what concerns there are in regard to safety.
“We need to look at what the public has to say about this,” McKenzie said. “Let’s take a look at what part of that grant is [about] bicycles at the waterfront. I’m not sure having motorized bicycles on that trail in the waterfront is really the right thing.”
Peekskill Council Member Charles DiGruccio said he would consider a Class 1, but wouldn’t be okay with the other two – Class 2 and Class 3 throttle e-bikes.
“The world is changing, and people are using e-bikes more and more, and it’s not just kids racing,” DiGruccio said. “Maybe there’s education that needs to happen involved with that, and maybe there needs to be a little bit more enforcement. But there are a lot of other uses, and people are being responsible with it. And if someone wants to take their bike out down to the riverfront and that’s their only way to get there, we don’t necessarily want to prevent that. We want to make sure that they can do that in a safe way for themselves and everybody else.”
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