Lakewood tries to address traffic woes in new plan
BY LARRY HLAVENKA JR.
Staff Writer

LAKEWOOD - Emptying out of buses, cars and anything else which brought them to the municipal building, throngs of senior citizens and other residents packed the auditorium for the Planning Board's Oct. 24 meeting to discuss Lakewood's revised master plan.

The hottest topic - zoning - was not discussed by the board during the three-hour hearing. The hearing was carried until tonight, Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. for discussion on items that were not reached at the previous meeting, including proposed zoning changes.

In the 79-page master plan document, 35 zoning change recommendations were made by the 29-person master plan committee. The members of the Planning Board will discuss those proposed changes and decide which ones to recommend to the Township Committee, which has the final say as to what is approved in the master plan.

Residents are concerned about the recommendations, some of which call for changing residential housing areas to high-density housing areas.

At the Oct. 24 meeting, the board members did discuss circulation issues, which include parking and traffic.

Despite the board's request to concentrate solely on circulation issues, residents who spoke during the public hearing often incorporated the topic of zoning and housing density into their comments.

As part of the plan, the recommendations with regard to circulation include reducing delays along Route 9, creating alternatives to Route 9 and improving traffic and parking in downtown Lake-wood.

Resident Bill Hobday said traffic concerns must be a priority for municipal officials.

"Our roads can't accommodate the current impact of traffic, let alone the future," Hobday said. "We are now so overcrowded it is like a city or metropolitan area. Ambulances are hard-pressed to get through traffic. We cannot continue at this pace. People will be coming to an area where it is impossible to negotiate around these roads."

Planning Board Chairman Stanley Banas said officials recognize the traffic problem.

"The town, along with Brick Township and Dover Township, are meeting with members of the county, state, Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation, trying to come up with solutions to the problems," Banas said. "We are extremely active."

Hobday said he believes Lakewood has destroyed its environment by permitting trees to be removed. His comments moved to housing, which was not before the board at the Oct. 24 meeting.

"We're taking down every tree is sight," he said. "We say we want to provide needs of housing ... and I understand that ... but we are running out of space that was once wooded. We are encroaching on every piece of our wildlife. I don't know if our infrastructure can withstand this. If we build everything now, we have not planned for the future."

After board members reminded residents they had not reached the zoning section of the master plan, Milton Itell said that in his opinion the two topics are intertwined.

"You are changing our whole system of housing and businesses," Itell said. "The key remains, 150 houses means 1 mile of vehicles placed on the streets. You can't do this until your transportation is straightened out."

After another resident told the board it was directly responsible for the overcrowding problems in Lakewood, Banas said, "You are asking to us to do an impossible task."

Regardless, the panel agreed to carry the hearing until tonight to discuss additional items in the plan. The board anticipates that a third and final hearing on the master plan will be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 14.