By Reuvain Borchardt

 

 

 

 

If you think Lakewood has no more room for housing development, you’re not alone.

 

The mayor agrees with you.

 

“Lakewood is just about developed out,” the mayor said, speaking at a business event for CARES (Community Advocacy, Resources & Education Services) held at a hall in Toms River.

 

“Most of the big open spaces in town are already either spoken for or fully developed, so I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of large-scale residential development going on.”

 

Coles was referring to new developments not in the works already, though several major new developments have previously been planned, including one at Massachusetts Avenue and Cross Street, for which construction has already begun, and one at James and Cross Streets that’s tied up in a court battle between the developer and the Planning Board.

 

Coles said that township property that has been sold for the past 15 years, and new development plans, have largely centered around schools, because “a school is the one thing that this township will never have enough space for. I still see, come September, there are people who are scrambling to get their kids into a school. So we made it a point that…the property that the township has is going to people to build schools.”

 

In discussing the changing face of the town, the mayor noted that he expanded his own ranch home a couple of times. “I had the biggest house on the street,” he said with a laugh. “Now it’s the smallest house on the street.”

 

It’s hard to find two residents of the Lakewood-Toms River area discussing the town for more than 30 seconds without the discussion turning to traffic and road issues, particularly related to Route 9.

 

The state is in the middle of a $48.5 million project to resurface seven miles of Route 9 in both directions between Indian Head Road in Toms River and 2nd Street in Lakewood, according to the Department of Transportation. The project will also widen eight signalized intersections and add two new signals at Oak Street and the Broadway-Chateau Drive intersections in Lakewood. At seven unsignalized intersections, left turn lanes will be added.

 

The project began in 2022, is currently two-thirds complete, and is expected to be finished in the fall of next year.

 

The work is divided into three zones: Northern Work Zone (from SecondStreet to James Street/Pine Street/Route 32 in Lakewood); Central Work Zone (Oak Street in Lakewood to Route 70 in Toms River); and Southern Work Zone (Route 70 to Indian Head Road in Toms River).

 

Drainage is currently being installed in the Northern Work Zone, and curb and sidewalk repairs are taking place in the Central Work Zone. In the Southern Work Zone, crews are resetting steel within the roadway to prepare for final paving, which is scheduled to begin in August.

 

Also, starting Monday, paving will begin on E. 4^th Street, from Park Ave to Route 88. That work will take about two months.

 

While residents are happy to hear about road pavings (minus the annoyance of the closures), the big question everyone always wants to know is whether Route 9 will be widened in our grandchildren’s lifetimes. Coles said that the work on Route 9 “is nowhere near what we would like it to be, but we’re also working with the state. We’re very confident that they’re going to agree with us and move ahead with widening Route 9 at the lake. And that is the big [bottleneck] in this town,” he said to sustained applause.

 

Coles applauded the new traffic light at New Hampshire Ave. and Chestnut Street, which, he bemoaned, took nine frustrating years for the county and state to agree to the Township’s request for.

 

And he said that the state is “starting a study of Route 88 to see what they can do…to make it wider, safer, and a little bit easier for people to get back and forth.”

 

“There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes,” the mayor said. “But yeah, we are tied to the infrastructure we have. We’re trying to do our best to make the changes that will make the difference in your lives to get around the town a little bit easier.”

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