Did you know that only about ¼ mile from Holmdel Town Hall is a National Historic Landmark?
The historic Horn Antenna, which sits on 42 beautiful acres of Holmdel Township named Crawford Hill (the highest point in Monmouth County), is important nationally and internationally for the role it played in confirming the “Big Bang” theory in the creation of the universe. Bell Labs scientists Robert Wilson (a Holmdel resident) and Arno Penzias received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 for their role and work with this antenna.
The Crawford Hill property, formerly owned by Nokia and currently unoccupied, was sold to Crawford Hill LLC in December 2020.
In the 2021 November general election, 3,458 Holmdel residents voted in favor of an increase in the tax levy for the Open Space Trust Fund. The Explanatory Statement for the public question stated, “The increase would fund various purposes such as additional acquisitions of open space and improvements to open space and parkland properties.”
In September 2022, the Holmdel Environmental Commission sent a letter to the Holmdel Township Committee recommending the Crawford Hill property be added to the list of Open Space Preservation Recommendations and be considered a candidate for acquisition by Holmdel Township and/or Monmouth County Parks for Open Space and a Park.
The Historic Preservation Plan Element of the Holmdel Master Plan has as one of its goals to “Take advantage of funding, information, and other resources available through County, State, and federal agencies, as well as private-sector entities and non-profit organizations, that may help the Township identify and protect historic resources.” This document specifically identified the Horn Antenna as a National Historic Landmark due to the role it played in confirming the Big Bang theory.
Despite the above, the Holmdel Township Committee has now asked the Holmdel Planning Board to investigate whether this property should be designated for “redevelopment”. A real possible consequence of this action is that the Horn Antenna and the Crawford Hill property are endangered to become a high-density residential development.
Holmdel’s concerned citizens including Citizens for Informed Land Use (CILU), Friends of Holmdel Open Space (FOHOS) and Preserve Holmdel (PH) are now circulating an online petition to preserve the area and the historic landmark. See the link below for their online petition.
The Planning Board has as an agenda item for their meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 6th a resolution to direct the Township Planner to prepare a study “per the request and authorization of Holmdel Township Committee Resolution #2022-307 …”.
Stay tuned - it will be interesting to see what happens to this National Historic Landmark.
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