Cedar Grove Beach

Cedar Grove Beach is a five-acre beach and waterfront park along Lower New York Bay in the New Dorp Beach/Oakwood Beach area of Staten Island's eastern shore. The beach provides free public ocean access along a stretch of coastline that has been dramatically reshaped by storm damage and climate resilience planning.

The Oakwood Beach area adjacent to Cedar Grove was one of the most severely impacted communities during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when storm surge flooding destroyed hundreds of homes. In the aftermath, the state implemented a voluntary buyout program that returned much of the neighborhood to nature, creating a buffer zone between the remaining homes and the shoreline.

The buyout program, one of the first of its kind in New York, demolished flood-damaged homes and returned the land to a natural state, creating wetlands and open space that serve as a buffer against future storm surge. Cedar Grove Beach sits along this transformed coastline.

The beach features sand, walking paths, and waterfront views across Lower New York Bay. The relatively undeveloped character of the shoreline in this area gives it a quieter atmosphere than the more developed beaches farther north.

Cedar Grove Beach sits at the intersection of recreation and climate adaptation, providing public beach access along a coastline that has been fundamentally reshaped by the forces of nature and the community's response to the reality of rising seas and intensifying storms.