The Parks & Facilities of Holmdel

Public Parks & Facilities

View a list of Holmdel's parks and public facilities.

Welcome to Parks of Holmdel!

Those of us who live in Holmdel are fortunate to have access to many beautiful parks. Our parks make life in Holmdel better – even if we rarely visit a park. While we usually think of parks as places for recreation, they bring considerable economic and environmental benefit to our community. They help strengthen our social connections and they bring invaluable beauty to our daily lives.

The Recreational Value of Parks

The recreational value of parks is usually the first thing we experience. Public parks give us the opportunity to be physically active, an essential component of a healthy lifestyle. The fields, trails, and greenways of Holmdel's parks encourage healthy habits at every age, whether you play organized sports, hike for miles in the woods, or just play catch with your dog and a Frisbee. A brisk walk in the park does as much to build your cardiovascular fitness as time indoors in a gym – but it's a lot more fun. Just being outdoors in the sun and fresh air renews a sense of well-being and peacefulness. Time spent in natural open spaces can reduce your stress, lift your mood, and refresh your spirit.

The Social Value of Parks

The social value of parks for Holmdel residents of all ages contributes to a greater sense of shared community and civic pride. Parks provide places to meet new people, socialize with friends, share meals, and model healthy behavior. Young people learn the benefits of park play early in life when good habits take hold. Children who use the many playgrounds in our parks enjoy a greater variety of equipment than they have at home, and get to socialize with a larger circle of new friends. And those who play sports learn valuable lessons in perseverance, teamwork, and good sportsmanship. The more time we spend in parks, the greater our commitment becomes to protecting our green open spaces and passing them on to future generations.

The Economic Value of Parks

Even if you don't often visit one, parks provide our community with economic and environmental benefits that serve the entire community.

Studies show that proximity to community parks and protected public land increases the value of adjacent private land. And even if you don't live near a park, you still gain property value because our parks contribute to the quality of life we enjoy in Holmdel and help keep our community a desirable place to live and work for homeowners and businesses.

Environmental Benefits

Parks and public lands offer important environmental benefits. Parks provide "green" buffers to construction and potential sprawl, helping to limit over-development in Holmdel and preserving our town's unique character.

Parks help protect our water supply, prevent flooding, and safeguard our wetlands. Like other open space, parks absorb rain that might otherwise end up in storm drains or your basement. Instead, that water is filtered through the soil to recharge the aquifers that feed our reservoirs. In this way parks not only help protect our drinking water, they also save us money by reducing the costs of flood control or cleanup.

Trees consume carbon dioxide (a "greenhouse gas") and produce oxygen which is vital to maintaining the balance in the air we breathe. Natural areas don't heat as much in summer as developed areas, so they help keep our neighborhoods and our planet cooler. Parks are natural sound barriers against the noise pollution of modern life and help make our lives more tranquil. Our green vistas offer a visually soothing few moments even when riding through town on errands.

Preserving Natural Wildlife Habitats

Finally, our local parks preserve natural wildlife habitats as rural, agricultural, and forest landscapes are being lost to development. Our parklands provide thousands of indigenous and migratory species with protected havens and allow bird and animal species to co-exist with people. This co-existence reminds us that we too are a part of the natural order.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line? Our parks are keeping our environment healthy, our property values high, and our lives rich with beauty -even if we rarely visit a park. Of course, those who spend the most time in our parks have the most fun!

Courtesy of Friends of Holmdel Open Space (FOHOS) and Citizens for Informed Land Use (CILU).