By Reuvain Borchardt

 

 

As housing construction proliferates and traffic increasingly worsens, just about every proposal for a school, dormitory, shul, or zoning variance now sparks fierce opposition from neighbors.

 

For the past three decades, Moshe Neiman has had a front-row seat to Lakewood’s explosive growth—and to the at-times bitter battles over what gets built and where.

 

Neiman, a Flatbush native, moved to Lakewood after his wedding in 1989 and joined the Planning Board in 1996. He currently serves as its chairman.

 

The Voice sat down with Neiman to discuss the work of the Planning Board, what mistakes township officials might have made in the past, why so many fights erupt today, and whether there might be a path forward out of our constant gridlock.

 

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It seems like these days, there’s a fight anytime anyone wants to build anything in this town—shuls, yeshivos, dorms, whatever.

 

Correct. I’ve been on the Planning Board since 1996 except for three years in the middle. In the beginning, if you didn’t approve something, they’d say you were an antisemite; today, if you do approve something, they say you’re an antisemite.

 

Of course, everyone has the right to question things. No one wants a dormitory or a shul right next door to their house.

 

The problem is that in Lakewood, a shul or school is permitted anywhere in town. Of course, there are other ordinances, like parking ordinances, setbacks, and all that.

 

 

Since a lot of people don’t know this, could you describe the function of the Planning Board and other bodies like the Zoning Board and the Township Committee as it relates to building?

 

You come to the Zoning Board if you want to change a zone. So if you have a piece of land that’s an R12 zone, where you’re only allowed to build houses on 12,000 square feet, but you want to put duplexes there, you have to go to the Zoning Board because you’re changing the zone.

 

But if you have an R10, in which duplexes are allowed, you come to the Planning Board. Even though you’re allowed to build it there, any time you subdivide a piece of property you have to come to the Planning Board just so we can make sure all the setbacks are good and you’re not asking for any variances.

 

The Planning Board does have the power to grant minor variances on things like setbacks. If in order to build something you need 10,000 square feet and you have 8,500, we can give a variance allowing that. But other than minor variances, we do follow the ordinances given to us by the Committee.

 

I think most people care not about development per se but about its effects on traffic. And in deciding whether to approve a project, you’re never allowed to consider whether the street can handle the traffic.

 

We always did consider traffic or safety even when they weren’t asking for variances, but the last two or three times we did it, the developer went to court and the judge overruled us.

 

The way the court looks at it, they’re following the ordinance, and it doesn’t say anywhere in an ordinance that you may take traffic into consideration. So yes, the developer was right. I would have thought that the Planning Board could look at the whole picture and see that there’s way too much traffic in that area and all the neighbors are coming out and talking about the traffic. But we technically do not have that right to deny an application based on traffic.

 

 

 

Is one of those cases the fight over the development at James and Cross?

 

James and Cross really had noth­ing to do with variances or traffic. It might have had a little to do with traf­fic, but it had to do more with wheth­er certain application deadlines were met. And the judge ruled that they did get their application in on time.

 

Was it really that the Board didn’t have a reason to deny it but it wanted to deny it, so it used the deadlines as an excuse?

 

It’s possible. There were a lot of people from the community who came out to fight against it. The developer wanted duplexes, and that side of James Street didn’t have any duplexes. But at the end of the day, the developer was right over here. There is a need for housing. Cross Street is supposed to be widened, and they can’t get certificates of occupan­cy until that part of Cross Street is widened. But they have the approvals and can start building.

 

The county engineer told me the entire Cross Street from East Veterans Highway to Route 9 will be five lanes by 2028. Do you believe that’s going to happen?

 

I wish. They’ve been talking about widening Cross since 2014.

 

Cross Street used to be horse farms. People started buying and subdividing them for schools.

 

As I said, a school can be built in any zone, but we on the Planning Board said we’re not going to give any approvals until Cross Street is widened.

 

But it wasn’t in your power to say that.

 

It wasn’t. But we did have the backing of Township Committee. They said, “Cross Street is going to be widened, but don’t give any approvals yet.” And we could have said we will not hear any applications on Cross Street until the county starts widen­ing it. I personally fought for that.

 

But then one wanted approval, and another one wanted…and now it’s a street of schools.

 

And schools cause a lot of traffic. Cross Street during dismissal time is a parking lot.

 

What’s happening at Eagle Ridge?

 

I wasn’t on the board when it ap­proved Eagle Ridge. But from what I understand, they have all the ap­provals ready to build something like 200 duplexes.

 

What do you think of the Zoning Board’s seemingly approving all sorts of zoning changes for housing until recently?

 

There’s a big housing need in Lakewood. People want to live here. And the Zoning Board’s allowed to give approvals for that. Ridge looks like Ridge today because of the Zoning Board. To buy a duplex in Ridge is over a million dollars, and people are actually paying for it and want to live there.

 

When I was a bachur learning in Yerushalayim, traffic was crazy. When I went back to Yerushalayim after 15 or 20 years, traffic was mov­ing, even with lots of construction having happened since then. It’s because they put in a light rail and new roads and really focused on the infrastructure over there. Lakewood could focus more on infrastructure.

 

What specifically?

 

There was no reason when the state widened Route 9 starting in the ’80s that it stopped at River Avenue.

 

Now people are building so close to Route 9, it’s impossible to widen it.

 

But why didn’t they, in the ’70s and ’80s, grid Lakewood like Boro Park is gridded? Until New Hampshire opened up a few years ago, the only north-south road was Route 9.

 

Now you do have other options for small sections. But for a town the size of Lakewood to only have one major thorough­fare going from north to south?

 

When discussing traffic issues, people always talk about widening Route 9 and other roads. But what you don’t hear about are all the vacating of paper streets.

 

[Editor’s note: Vacating a paper street occurs when the township allows a developer to make what had been designed by town planners to be a through street into something else, like a development or a cul-de-sac.]

 

Yes, that’s another issue. Why are they vacating streets? Why are they having cul-de-sacs?

 

 

So you disagree with the township having vacated all those streets?

 

I’m not saying I disagree with them. I don’t know. You have to look into each va­cation as an individual thing. I’ve seen some vacations that make 100 percent sense be­cause there was nothing there.

 

What I can tell you is that 30 years ago, we should have had the foresight to look at all of these paper streets and make grids in­stead of having these cul-de-sacs.

 

 

Do you think the primary issue with the traffic and congestion is the zon­ing changes and all this development, or is it the vacating of paper streets and everyone being pushed onto Route 9?

 

It’s definitely a combination.

 

I grew up in Flatbush. You might get stuck behind a garbage truck or hit some red lights, but you don’t have that frustration of going down Route 9 that you have here.

 

As we started out discussing, in recent years there have been lots of fights over various issues before the Planning Board and other bodies. When people want to build some­thing, they can count on the neigh­bors fighting it. It wasn’t always that way. Do you think this is because Lakewood is so built out and there’s so much traf­fic that people are saying enough is enough and they will fight every request for a variance or whatever?

 

Yes, definitely. I’d say the fighting started about 2017 or 2018.

 

People also are spending a lot of money on housing today. I bought my house over 30 years ago for $210,000. Today it’s hard to find anything for under a million. And when people spend that kind of money, they want peace and quiet, that their kids be able to play outside, and they are concerned that there are schools.

 

I’ll give you an example. Between Albert and New Hampshire there are one or two streets that are like, three houses, a big school, three houses, a big school. The parents are afraid for their kids to ride a bike because cars are constantly flying in and out of parking lots of the school.

 

And there has been a lot of opposition from neighbors for schools in that area. So yes, while schools are allowed to be built anywhere, there’s still frustration, and families are still go­ing to try to fight schools because of that.

 

There’s a lot of fighting about yeshivos building dorms. And in most areas of town, dorms, unlike schools, don’t have an automatic right to be built.

 

There’s a dorm on my block, and I have no issues with it. But we also heard at Board hearings about people who had problems with some boys who lived in dorms on their block. Dorms need a good mashgiach, and the kids have to understand that you are in a residen­tial neighborhood.

 

Also, some people don’t want a boys’ school right near where they have teenage girls grow­ing up. You also have hezek re’iyah issues, whether it’s the dorm looking ugly, the litter­ing, the loitering, windows facing the other people’s homes, and stuff like that. So a dorm is a very tricky case, and you have to take that into consideration.

 

I’ve heard that when someone tries to build a shul or a dorm or whatever in another town and the locals fight it and the Jews accuse them of antisemitism, sometimes the response is “In Lakewood they fight you just as hard as we do.”

 

I hate when there’s a chillul Hashem. I hate when there’s fighting at the Planning Board hearings.

 

As the chairman of the Planning Board, when I see that there’s a contentious applica­tion, I personally will call both sides to the ta­ble and try to work everything out beforehand so that we shouldn’t have fights. And baruch Hashem, in a lot of cases by the time they come to the hearing, they’ve worked everything out beforehand. Maybe they have to build a higher fence or have a little farther setback, make sure there are no simchos at a particular time at that hall, or take care of parking or whatever the is­sue may be.

 

I remember a yeshivah wanted to build on Massachusetts, and the whole senior com­munity came out against it, and lemaaseh, we had a meeting and at the end of the meeting, the seniors came to me and said, “Mr. Neiman, thank you so much for siding with us,” and the rosh yeshivah said, “Moshe, shkoiach for siding with us.” I let everyone talk and air things out. Sometimes you can solve 80 percent of a prob­lem just by listening and letting them feel imo anochi b’tzarah.

 

 

 

Speaking of what goes on in the other towns, do you think if neighbors fight something or permits are denied, it is an­tisemitism? It seems people in Lakewood are fighting these things too.

 

We know Eisav sonei l’Yaakov. But do I be­lieve that every denial in Jackson or Toms River is antisemitism? No. They look at Lakewood as a parking lot and as being so dense, and they don’t want that to happen to their towns.

 

And I can’t blame them for that. You could argue that they could be a little more flexible, but maybe they’re afraid that if you give them a finger, they’ll want a hand.

 

There’s another zoning fight now off Prospect Street. Not too long ago, a bunch of developments were approved off Prospect without much of a fight.

 

Fifteen or 20 years ago there was no traffic on Prospect, so those developments with town­homes were easily approved.

 

Maybe it was those approvals that caused all this traffic?

 

It’s very possible. But they vacat­ed streets there too. There were pa­per streets that went all the way to Cross. That triangle was gridded. But now everything leads onto Prospect.

 

Oak and Vine kept a grid and doesn’t have these traf­fic problems.

 

That’s right.

 

I personally had an issue with Oak and Vine because there were no shuls there. Everything was homes. You need to have shuls to accommo­date the houses, so that everyone is not driving to shul three times a day. But today there are like 10 shuls in Oak and Vine.

 

So other than the fantasy about widening Route 9, where do we go from here? Are we going to have to live with this traffic for the rest of our lives?

 

I don’t know. There’s no good in­frastructure plan.

 

Now they are putting in traffic lights, which helps. They are widen­ing certain roads, like Cross Street. You just have to focus on the infra­structure. And you have to make de­velopers widen roads and put money into the infrastructure of their area. That can all help.

 

But yes, we are going to be sitting in traffic for the rest of our lives here.

 

There aren’t a lot of areas in town left to develop, but there are some. Do you think that in the future the township will be stricter about requiring through streets?

 

The only way to do it is for the township to create tax maps that are grids, and that’s how you’re buying it, and then say we don’t vacate streets anymore and that’s it.

 

The Committee members are nice people. Someone goes to them and says, “Can you vacate this paper street? It doesn’t lead anywhere any­way.” So they want to help the person out. Maybe it’s private people who want a backyard, or it’s a developer who can build a few more houses by making cul-de-sacs.

 

But going forward, I think the fo­cus can’t be on helping yechidim, but looking at the tzibbur as a whole.

 

Planning Board members don’t get paid. You’ve spent thou­sands of hours over the last 30 years doing this. Why?

 

[Starts singing] “V’chol mi she’oskim b’tzorchei tzibbur b’emu­nah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu ye­shaleim secharam…”

 

Is it only Hakadosh Baruch Hu, or do you get any financial ben­efits from this?

 

Nothing at all. In 30 years, no one has ever offered me a bribe.

 

There are more sophisticated payoffs than outright bribes. No-show jobs, business deals, related interests, etc.

 

Neither I nor any relative of mine has ever had a single financial bene­fit from me being on the Board. The only thing I can say is that since I am a well-known figure in town, I might have an easier time getting my kid into school! But otherwise, I have gained noth­ing from this but agmas nefesh—and the op­portunity to help the community.

 

 

My time is just about up. Anything else you wanted to say?

 

Look, with growth there’s always going to be growing pains and different opinions. The main thing is you should try to be as b’achdus as you can.

 

And you have to know that yes, you can have a shul in your backyard.

 

And you have to know that if you bought a house that had woods in the backyards, don’t expect that the woods will be there forever. If you want woods, buy the woods. You can’t have taanos on someone who wants to build a house that he took away your view. You should have known that where there’s woods today, there’ll be a home there tomorrow.

 

Someone heavily involved in this issue told me he believes there wouldn’t be a traffic issue in Lakewood if not for everyone from Jackson, Howell, Manchester, and Toms River travel­ing in here all the time, and that we’ll have these issues until these com­munities make their own schools and other community infrastructure.

 

One of the roshei mosdos here in town came to the Planning Board for approval a few years ago. He told me more than half his students come from Jackson. I asked him why he doesn’t just build a school in Jackson.

 

His answer was “To go through Jackson and get all the approvals and everything can take years. Let me build it here and get it off the ground, and maybe one day I’ll have the time to go build in Jackson.”

 

Is it also possible that he has to build it here because even for Jackson parents, es past nisht to send to a “Jackson school,” which is just not as desirable as a “Lakewood school”?

 

Unfortunately, that’s very possible.

 

But that’s a conversation for another time.

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