Hilltop reservation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hilltop reservation is a county park in Essex County. It has over 600 square acres. Hilltop Reservation is the most recent addition to the Essex County Park System. It is composed of lands formerly included in the grounds of the Essex County Hospital Center. The land was designated a Conservation Easement in 2001, by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, permanently dedicating it for conservation and recreation purposes, and thereby protecting it from any future development.

In 2003, additional acreage was dedicated, bringing the Reservation’s total to 284.16 acres. This addition to the County’s official NJ Green Acres Recreation and Open Space Inventory brings the current total acreage of the Essex County Park System to 6010.52.

Portions of the land, particularly some smaller parcels which are not contiguous with the main area, will be dedicated to recreational use by the host communities.

Many conservancy members are local activists who got involved in the Hilltop property because they were fighting development on the land. Though acres of the property were sold for new homes, the activists have since turned their attention to preserving the remaining land.

The Hilltop meadow site is located within a loop of paved roadways that provided access to the former Essex Mountain Sanatoriumcomplex. This loop contains about 20 acres of open space, with approximately 10 acres viable for restoration to a native meadow. The other half of the area will be maintained as open woodland.

(Still under construction)