Hartshorne Woods Park Is Expanding By 14 Acres

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NJ — Hartshorne Woods Park, the popular 736-acre park that nearly covers the entire peninsula of land between Sandy Hook Bay and the Navesink River, will be expanding by about 14 acres later this year.

The news was confirmed by the Monmouth County Park System. The Henry Hudson Regional School district has agreed to sell 14 acres of land it owns for $2 million to the county park system.

That small school district serves students who live in Highlands and Atlantic Highlands. The 14 acres consists of land located around Henry Hudson High School and its baseball fields. You can see the land that will be sold below in a map provided to Patch by the county park system.

The deal was announced at the Jan. 16 Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education meeting, and was first reported by The Two River Times. It will take up to six months for the deal to go through.

The land currently is not in use and is sitting vacant. As locals know, it is a very hilly area, and the land slopes too steeply for the school to build on it, a school administrator said at the public meeting.

Map of the 14 acres that are being sold:

Janet Sherlock, the business administrator for Henry Hudson Regional High School, said the school decided to sell the land to the county because there are currently no plans to expand the school, and because it is too expensive to develop that land.

“Before the county parks came into the picture, we looked into developing some of this land and it was cost-prohibitive," she said at the meeting, according to The Two River Times. "Because of the sloping, the retaining walls that would be needed, and because of what the ground is made of. The material is so hard, it’s difficult to build on."

Once completed, it means that the Monmouth County Park System will be able to build a walking path from the Battery Lewis to the Twin Lights lighthouse on the top of Mt. Mitchill. Currently, the two historic sites are not connected by park land. But once the deal is complete they will be joined in a one-mile scenic uphill hike, one that offers sweeping, magnificent views of Sandy Hook Bay and the New York City skyline from the top.

Map and top photo provided by the Monmouth County Park System.