Stone Road Meadows and the Van Mater Homestead at Flat Creek

Considerations of the imperative need to preserve these properties for the important and unique benefits which they impart to the Bayshore Region of Monmouth County:

Stone Road Meadows and the former Van Mater Family Homestead properties, both located in Hazlet Township, drain into and are naturally interrelated with the Wetlands of Flat Creek, a tributary of the Raritan Bay. Together, the three contiguous sites form an overall area which has a major beneficial impact on the quality of life in the surrounding, densely populated, residential neighborhoods and which also contributes greatly to the environmental health and preservation of the Raritan Bay/Flat Creek Watershed by providing continued open space as a much needed watershed repository which has been identified by the Bayshore Regional Watershed Council as one of nine endangered sites threatened with overwhelming development.

The “Meadows and Homestead” properties, which total 31 acres, comprise a tract which is relatively large in comparison to what little open space remains in this area of six clustered communities (Hazlet, Aberdeen, Keyport, Union Beach, Matawan and Keansburg) and it is the last undeveloped, open space, tract of this type and size, where no other equivalent tracts exist; here, in the almost fully built-out Western Reach of the Monmouth County Bayshore Region. Thus, the Stone Road Meadows location possesses some especially unique and important characteristics simply by virtue of its remarkable size in this area of vanishing open space.

Being strategically situated along the Route 36 corridor, near the border confluence of three communities, (Union Beach, Keyport, and Hazlet), and approximately 1000 feet from the Henry Hudson Trail System and the nearby Flat Creek Wetland Area, Stone Road Meadows and the Van Mater Homestead form a natural Trail Destination Point and Greenway Link. The site also provides additional significant environmental and other unique resources to the Bayshore Area, including its important functions as both a necessary haven for the survival of a plethora of migrating birds which stop off to find rest, food, and shelter from the elements and as a home to red foxes and other wildlife; and by its notable historical legacy, since the land and the existing Homestead buildings, which represent the last surviving example of a local, historic, small farm model, dating back to 1836, are directly linked to some of the original founders of Hazlet, Union Beach, and Keyport and to the Van Mater family, who have been recognized as one of the prominent Dutch families known to be among the earliest settlers of Monmouth County, NJ.

The New Jersey Department of Transportation has ongoing plans (project ID # 93236) to raise the height of the Highway 36 Bridge and Roadway over Flat Creek at the intersection with Stone Road Meadows. The plans also include the creation of a Wetland System Expansion Area adjacent to Highway 36 and Flat Creek to further reduce flooding of the Highway and nearby residential neighborhoods, thereby, increasing the Flat Creek Watershed and Greenway Area.

In recent months, there has been an overwhelming grass-roots effort calling for and supporting the preservation of Stone Road Meadows as a possible county park for active and passive recreation and for environmental and wildlife conservation and education. Letters and resolutions (copies available upon request) have been issued by many residents, local governing bodies, environmental and shade tree commissions, other community organizations, and 13th District Assemblypersons. In addition, the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders have also identified and affirmed the integral role that the preservation of the “Meadows” could potentially play in the future advancement of the Bayshore Regional Strategic Plan, as a “Gateway Park to the Bayshore”, and they have called for the new Strategic Plan Collaborative to “…develop and oversee…” and to “…undertake the shaping of the future of the Stone Road Meadows site”.

Compiled by the Hazlet Area Quality of Life Alliance and the Consortium to Preserve Stone Road Meadows and the Van Mater Homestead - PO Box 94-Hazlet, NJ 07730 –April 2007

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