Concepts For Horn Antenna Development Now On Holmdel Website

HOLMDEL, NJ — Considering it weighs 18 tons, the historic Horn antenna in Holmdel makes a quick disappearance and then a reappearance - at least on paper - at its Crawford Hill site.

Crawford Hill Holdings LLC submitted a "concept" to the township in February for a townhouse development that includes relocating the antenna on the property, not removing it totally from the site.

But the plan submitted before that didn't show the landmark artifact there at all, even though it was relocated to the middle of the development in the version before that.

While no immediate action is being taken by the township on the proposal, possible development ideas for the Crawford Hill site of the Horn antenna are now all posted on a township website for the public to examine.

Crawford Hill information can be accessed two ways. One, you can use this link: https://www.holmdeltownship.com/757/Crawford-Hill-Information.

Or you can access it on the Holmdel website from the "Services" tab, under the "Information Pages" heading, the township says.

In response to "numerous public inquiries," the township is posting all concept plans that it has received from Crawford Hill Holding LLC and/or Burke Contracting, LLC for the Crawford Hill property.

The site at 791 Holmdel Road is now privately owned by a township resident who has development plans for the 40+-acre site that includes a National Historic Landmark - the Horn antenna.

The antenna was used by Bell Labs researchers in various experiments, and led to the confirmation of the "Big Bang" theory of the creation of the universe.

Preserving the antenna - and the full Crawford Hill site it sits on - is the goal of a coalition of preservation groups. A petition to not disturb the antenna or the site except as an educational site has garnered more than 6,000 signatures, including from scientists and members of the public.

Each of the concept documents on the site are "government records" subject to production under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act, the township said.

The Citizens for Informed Land Use, one of the groups advocating for preservation of the site, had already obtained these documents under the OPRA law and expressed concern about the relocation of the antenna from its original footprint.

The township noted that a "developer's submission of a concept plan is not a reflection of the township's position in any respect."

Last week, the Citizens for Informed Land Use said that a November concept plan removed the Horn antenna off the site completely. Now, in the latest concept, the Horn is back. But Crawford Hill is still developed - a move the group opposes.

Document 5 from March 13, 2023, shows a magnified look at a .97-acre area set aside for the antenna and a proposed museum building. Document 4 shows the same view but from a wider perspective, showing the 88 townhouses. The antenna and a museum would be located outside of the townhouse area. An asphalt trail winds around the complex on the far end of the plan.

Burke Contracting of Ocean Township is working with Crawford Hill Holdings on development of the site.

According to a representative of another preservation group, Save Holmdel Horn, Kin Gee said documents were obtained that show an idea was floated last year to place the Horn antenna at Bell Works, the redeveloped site of the former Bell Labs research facility.

Gee, in an email, pointed out documents showing that on Oct. 4, 2022, an attorney for the developers asked the Holmdel Township Committee to approve a resolution directing the Planning Board to study the site as one potentially in need of redevelopment. In November, of last year, the committee passed that resolution and it was accepted by the Planning Board in December.

In the request, the Burke company experts included a memo that suggests: "To preserve historical significance of the Antennas and Equipment located on Crawford Hill Observatory, it is anticipated that the Horn Antenna will be relocated to the Bell Works or any other suitable site."

That plan now is not on the table. And Mayor DJ Luccarelli said Friday the township has not heard back from the Planning Board as yet on a decision for a redevelopment designation of the site.

A spokesperson for the developer, Thom Ammirato, reiterated that the current plans keep the antenna on Crawford Hill, but relocated. He repeated Friday that there is no intention to remove the antenna, but he said the developer "bought the tract to develop it."

But Citizens for Informed Land Use maintain development at the site could threaten the Horn antenna's National Historic Landmark status.

"There are growing concerns that if the Horn is removed or relocated from its original site, even if just a few feet, it will forfeit its National Historic Landmark designation," the organization said.

The group also argues that high-density development would be a deviation from the "bucolic environment Holmdel strives to preserve."

Crawford Hill and the Horn are currently in an RL-40 zone, meaning use of the site is limited to laboratories devoted to research, design or experimentation, the group notes.