Holmdel OKs First Steps In Making Horn Antenna Site Its Own

HOLMDEL, NJ — The Holmdel Township Committee voted to approve resolutions Tuesday night that will begin the process of acquiring the 43-acre Crawford Hill property, home to the historically significant Horn antenna.

Mayor DJ Luccarelli told the assembled residents that what so many have sought - the protection and preservation of an antenna that was used in research to confirm the very creation of the universe - "makes sense."

The action is "not taken lightly," he said, but it is the start of a process that will enable the township to keep safe a "unique property," and ensure the National Historic Landmark status of the Horn antenna, intrinsic to Crawford Hill for decades now.

Responding to a "ground swelling" of public opinion and fulfilling the open space imperatives of the township Master Plan, the committee decided to put forth the resolutions. Crawford Hill Resolutions 2023-168 and 2023-169, as listed on the agenda, were both unanimously approved.

Resolution 2023-168 authorizes appraisal for "potential condemnation and acquisition of Crawford Hill property. (Pages 61-67 of the agenda.)

Resolution 2023-169 "modifies past authorizations of redevelopment investigation." (Pages 68-70 of the agenda.)

The Crawford Hill site at 791 Holmdel Road is owned by a private developer who is considering a townhouse project there - a plan that has met with much opposition from land use and historic preservation groups concerned about the landmark Horn antenna.

An appraisal of the site is the first step in coming up with a good faith offer for the property to present to the owner, Rakesh Antala of Holmdel, said Township Attorney Michael L. Collins. Antala in 2021 purchased the property from Nokia, which acquired it from Bell Labs.

A vacant Nokia building is on a smaller lot adjacent to the antenna site. The blighted building is still part of a redevelopment study by the township, Collins said, noting that "redevelopment" in this context does not imply any specific plans for it.

Once an offer for the entire property (both lots) is presented, there is a set time for the offer to be considered by the other party. Depending on the negotiations, the township can ultimately exercise its right of condemnation, Collins said, which would then involve Superior Court proceedings.

But matters are far from that point yet.

Tuesday night's meeting was a cause for celebration. Several speakers thanked the committee and Luccarelli said the Township Committee was "excited" about the step.

Ralph Blumenthal, a leader in environmental issues in the township and part of a coalition that urged the preservation, thanked the committee and suggested it consider working with Monmouth County Parks to seek funding toward the acquisition. He also said the county can offer guidance for the site's reimagining as a park and educational center.

"We all hope for an incredible park in Holmdel," he said.

The Horn antenna was built by Bell Labs on this highest point of land in Monmouth County and was used in satellite research there.

That research took on a broader significance when the antenna detected background cosmic microwave radiation, providing "irrefutable evidence" of the Big Bang Theory of the creation of the universe, the township notes in Resolution 168. This was Nobel Prize-winning research, and the antenna was named a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 for their work at the Horn antenna.

Wilson still lives in the township, and he was at the meeting Tuesday night - in part to cheer on the Satz School Technology Students Association, whose members were recognized at the meeting.

One resident who addressed the committee remembered meeting Wilson.

She said she has long supported the preservation of the Horn antenna, and she and her family would celebrate the winter or summer solstice there.

One day she met Wilson at the site - a unique opportunity for "my little family" to experience living scientific history, she said.

So the action Tuesday by the Township Committee was profound to her.

"This is the single greatest act," she said, in Holmdel government history. "It's so huge; it's so beneficial," she told the committee members.

To read more about the resolutions and more history of the site, see this recent Patch article.