By Sunayana Prabhu
HOLMDEL – The Holmdel Horn Antenna will be preserved on Crawford Hill as part of a 35-acre public park, township officials announced after completing a successful negotiation with property owner Crawford Hill Holdings LLC.
Officials made the announcement at the Oct. 12 committee meeting, ending concern, speculation and a nearly yearlong effort by residents, the township and the scientific community to preserve the important radio telescope.
The “friendly condemnation” agreement marks a significant victory for the people of Holmdel and a few thousand across the globe who opposed a high-density residential development plan that put the future of the legendary Horn Antenna at risk.
“It’s a very exciting day, after one year of effort,” Mayor D.J. Luccarelli said at the Thursday meeting. “I am pleased to announce that the township has successfully negotiated the preservation of Crawford Hill and the Horn Antenna.” He noted that “this breakthrough will allow future generations to observe the Horn Antenna, a National Historic Landmark located within Holmdel, as well as the impressive views that can be observed from the highest point in Monmouth County (Crawford Hill), all as part of a sprawling 35-acre public park.”
The committee unanimously voted on a memorandum of understanding with Crawford Hill Holdings owner Rakesh Antala. Under the terms of the agreement, the township will acquire majority portions of the site, including lots 6 and 6.1 where the Horn Antenna sits, and an access easement to lot 7 for a net sale price of $4.75 million. Crawford Hill Holdings will retain ownership of lot 7, the current site of the Nokia laboratory building.
Luccarelli said the purchase price is $5.5 million, with Crawford Hill Holdings placing $750,000 “in escrow for improvements.” That money will allow the township to preserve the Horn Antenna and improve the site by repaving access roads, taking down old structures that have not been utilized and potentially building a visitor center near the antenna.
The purchase of the property will be made through the township’s Open Space, Recreation, Floodplain Protection, Farmland, and Historic Preservation Trust Fund. Holmdel residents voted to increase their contribution to this trust fund in 2021.
In August the township passed a $2 million bond ordinance toward the acquisition costs of Crawford Hill and the antenna. The township committee will pass a new bond ordinance at its next meeting to cover the remaining $3.5 million, explained William Antonides, township CFO, in a phone call with The Two River Times, allowing the township to borrow from its “different funds.”
The township can borrow from itself at 0% interest and pay itself back over the coming five or six years with tax money collected for the Open Space fund. “We don’t have that money there now so it’ll be paid down over a couple of years. And we’re also hoping to get some grant money there, too,” Antonides said, which will help reduce the cost.
“The negotiated settlement will allow the township to obtain title to Crawford Hill quickly while preventing against any litigation exposure to the township over the value of the property,” said Luccarelli. The township is paying less than the developer claims is the fair market value of the property.
“This settlement brings a successful end to our yearlong effort to preserve Crawford Hill and the Horn Antenna upon terms that are responsible and will not impact Holmdel taxpayers,” said Deputy Mayor Rocco Impreveduto.
According to township attorney Mike Collins, the township and Crawford Hill Holdings, as part of a memorandum of understanding, have agreed to a “friendly condemnation,” which means the township will file a condemnation complaint and Crawford Hill Holdings, together with the township, will consent to the condemnation of the property in Superior Court.
Once the township pays Crawford Hill Holdings, it will own the title to the property and then work with professional planners and engineers to clean up the site, secure unsafe structures and develop a plan for it to become a public park.
The township has agreed not to exercise eminent domain over lot 7, Collins said. Crawford Hill Holdings will be the designated redeveloper of that property.
The township considered condemning the property after the planning board voted to recommend lot 7 as a condemnation area in need of redevelopment at its Sept. 5 meeting but determined that would incur “significant costs,” Luccarelli said, above what is already being spent to acquire lots 6 and 6.01.
“In the end, the township concluded that it is best served in partnering with Crawford Hill Holdings and engaging in a redevelopment process to bring out an adaptive reuse of the former Nokia building at no cost to the township,” said Luccarelli.
The township will adopt a redevelopment plan for lot 7 to allow for specific uses such as office, medical, health, research lab and educational facilities. The plan will be deed restricted to prohibit and prevent any residential development on lot 7, including any assisted living or continuing care facilities.
“I am grateful to the township committee, the township’s staff and professionals, and the members of the public that have supported our effort to preserve the Horn Antenna and prevent against impacts such as high-density housing,” said Luccarelli. “I also want to extend my appreciation to Rakesh Antala and the members of Crawford Hill Holdings LLC for negotiating in good faith and reaching this agreement.”
Antala thanked the township officials at the meeting for “professionalism” throughout the seemingly “long process” and said, “We had ups and downs and differences, but I think both parties had one thing very clear – that we wanted to preserve the Horn Antenna and, in the end, we did it.”
In a statement released after the meeting, Antala added, “We wanted to avoid litigation since it is costly to both parties and only raises animosity and distrust. Being a town resident, that is not the atmosphere that I wanted to operate in.”
The governing body’s decision clearly marks a significant chapter in Holmdel’s history.
The high plateau of Crawford Hill and the Horn Antenna commissioned on it by Bell Labs in 1960 for NASA’s Project Echo were both instrumental in proving the Big Bang theory of the universe’s origin. The Nobel-winning discovery was made in 1965 by two Bell Labs scientists, Dr. Arno Penzias and Holmdel resident Dr. Robert Wilson. They discovered that the perpetual hiss intercepted by their large Horn Antenna was not from pigeon droppings or traffic noise from Manhattan but cosmic microwave background radiation that permeates the universe – the big bang, the sound of the universe being born 13.8 billion years ago echoing inside a radio telescope on a quiet Crawford Hill in Holmdel. In the world of cosmology, this has been one of the most important discoveries since Edwin Hubble demonstrated in the 1920s that the universe was expanding.
The significance of the Horn Antenna brought global attention to the township’s proceedings driven by often inspiring testimonies from residents, environmentalists, teachers, students, homemakers, physicists and thousands more who participated through grassroots community groups like CILU (Citizens for Informed Land Use), FOHOS (Friends Of Holmdel Open Space) and Preserve Holmdel.
The article originally appeared in the October 19 – 25, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
