The following is an APP article: With a 164 percent population jump projected for the township by 2030 — to a total of 230,000 people — the question is whether such growth should be stunted or encouraged.
That debate was conducted last night as nearly 400 people groaned, applauded, held no-growth signs and took to the microphone during a public hearing on the township’s proposed plans for guiding future development.
The Lakewood Smart Growth Plan — which projected the population increase — walks a tightrope between appeasing the state agencies needed for future grants and bureaucratic streamlining, and meeting a population explosion that will require nearly doubling the town’s housing stock over the next two decades.
“The key issue facing Lakewood is where these housing units can and should be located,” the plan states.
The 20-year plan calls for keeping most future development to a handful of clustered centers: the downtown, the area around the BlueClaws stadium, Oak Street, and the area around Cross and Prospect streets. These centers are to include a range of uses, from offices, storefronts and schools to affordable housing, walkable neighborhoods and parks.
Seniors, by and large, have viewed the plan as a blueprint for a metropolis. They fear losing the quietness and openness they moved here to enjoy.
“This is not my vision for Lakewood’s future,” said Marilyn Fontanetta, 67. “It is unfair to the third of households that comprise the senior community since they will bear a large burden for this expansion but not benefit much from it.”
Reactions from the Orthodox Jewish community have been largely positive. From 2000 to 2007, Lakewood went from the 20th to the eighth largest municipality in the state and the second youngest by age in the country, according to census data.
Those changes can largely be attributed to the rise of the Orthodox population, which last year enrolled more than 15,000 children into private schools. Beth Medrash Govoha, the largest yeshiva in the country, alone accounted for 72 percent of all new Lakewood households in the last 20 years, according to the yeshiva.
“We need open air space; we need to move out of the heart of Lakewood and expand our horizons,” said Yosef Posen, executive director of Lakewood Cheder, two private schools with 3,200 students.
Beth Medrash CEO Aaron Kotler said the plan was “a good step in the right direction toward coordinated planning,” yet close monitoring during its implementation will be crucial.
“Approving the plan and not using it to bring those resources (infrastructure improvements to roads and transportation) to Lakewood . . . most likely will result in failure,” he said in an e-mail.
Still, some others feel the plan caters too heavily to private schools and not enough on minority housing.
“We want to know where’s our slice of the pie,” said pastor Glenn Wilson of Unified Neighbors for Improving Today’s Equality, or UNITE, which has recently been a vocal advocate for public school reform.
Helen Henderson of the American Littoral Society said such expansion would require the entire town to switch from septic systems to sanitary sewers, which would invite development that would threaten environmental resources like wetlands and endangered species that are state-protected.
The plan eliminates all rural zoning, allowing suburban development into what remains of farmland to the west that’s not preserved, she noted.
“It (the plan) is dead in the water in terms of moving forward with any state planning process,” Henderson contended, adding, however, that “it’s a step in the right direction but still not there yet in balancing resource protection and growth.”
Mayor Robert W. Singer also sees virtually no rural land left but points out that the smart growth plan to create more than 1,000 acres of parks and open space is unprecedented. Singer accused self-interest groups of spreading misinformation about what the plan intends to accomplish.
For example, he said, “Seniors are being told that if this plan is denied nothing will be built. What they should be told is that if we don’t have a plan, what will be built will be hodgepodge.”
On the complaints about schools, Singer said public school enrollment has not risen in years. Conversely, private school attendance has skyrocketed.
(Source: Asbury Park Press)
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9 Responses
Lakewood definitely has a problem with huge growth, but so does Boro Park and Flatbush; and Ashdod and Beit Shemesh. Obviously this outcry isn’t being fueled by worries of growth other than pure anti-semitism, the dread that the ultra Orthodox community will take over. Same dread that the secular Jews of Israel have. We should quote a posuk and Chazal pshat to them. Pen Yirbu, Kein Yirbu.
What will happen to Lakewood when Moshiach comes?
This is always the dilemma we need to live with and it has nothing to do with Lakewood. A person must have long range plans if he wants to get any where and not just live a hodge podge existence but on the other hand he needs to have that suitcase to take along for משיח’s arrival.
I think it is a wonderful thing that Lakewood is thinking long term. I hope they are careful not to make a chillul HaShem with the current residence.
“Pen YirBeh”–Pharoah
The Population Council, funded by the Rockefeller Brothers, is working hard to stop this growth, like Pharoah.
The HiN1 vaccination program contains spermaticides which are designed to sterilize the people who get the shot.
Bonei Olam, are you listening?
Sammygol: if I’m not mistaken, moving outside the borders of Lakewood makes someone ineligible for township school bussing. As far as I know the people that live in so-called Jackson actually live within the borders of Lakewood.
Sammy, my friend (no. 7):
Here are the facts, straight from the “horse’s mouth,” Obama’s Science “Czar.”—
Obama’s science czar, John Holdren.
Dr. Holdren is the co-author of the 1977 book, Ecoscience, which calls for massive global depopulation using sterilizing vaccinations.
Dr. Horowitz points to the fact that Nonoxynol-9, a spermicidal drug causing spontaneous abortions in pregnant women, and birth defects in infants is one of the many new “adjuvants used by the American-based Baxter Company in their H1N1 flu vaccines.
(Note that Obama and NY Governor Paterson have both declared Flu “Emergencies.”–Why?
As someone who has lived in Lakewood for a nice number of years, I have very mixed feelings about this. As I am sure many people do. Of course, on one hand, I miss the beauty, serenity & peacefulness that was once Lakewood. No problems at all getting from point A to point B. Parking was never an issue. The Rat Race was pretty much non existant. People were not exclusive, they were generally inclusive. Not everyone had to be EXACTLY the same to get anywhere. Yes, it was a very beautiful, peaceful and relaxing place. We left the noise of the city behind for the ruchniyus of Lakewood and the smell of pine trees rather than the exhaust of city buses. That was one side I guess.
What we have now is something totally different. We have lots of noise, more homes per square inch than anyone thought possible, traffic that is worse than Boro Park and not enough schools to accomodate. We have nicer and more extravagant cars than in New York. Many of them financed way beyond our means.
However, on the other side of this equation is the Torah, mosdos, yeshivos, shuls, Talmidei Chachamim that are almost unrivaled anywhere in the world. Our children are growing up in an environment of ruchniyos that we just did not see as youngsters. In a world out there that is so much more dangerous than the one that we grew up in, we have to appreciate the “Teiva” that is Lakewood. While of course the outside world has filtered in as always is the case, it is to so much of a lesser degree than in other cities and towns. We are happy that most of the times our worldly “problems” are how much the kids are following the World Series. (Incidentally, I think it’s a good clean outlet!). They hardly know about the big city, the horrible media and the likes.
So, the question is, how do we balance the need for some peacefulness that was & the booming Torah growth that is now. I do not profess to have the answers. Maybe just a suggestion. Maybe we can just realize and admit that for whatever reasons, the growth IS out of control. The infrastructure can’t handle it. Neither can the nerves of most sane human beings. On the other hand, it is what it is. We will not reverse it in the near future. So, here’s a novel suggestion. Why not just tone it down and redouble our efforts to act with yashrus and mentschlichkeit? Stop the honking at 6:30 in the morning. There MIGHT be someone sleeping in the neighborhood. Stop yelling into your bluetooth and cell phones while walking around a store. Aside for the fact that some of the conversations people have to overhear are ridiculous, it’s also plain rude. What about putting down your cell phone while you drive around before you come within inches of mowing down a couple of more people? Why do YOU need to park ON the lawn of the shul or Simcha Hall? Can’t you just walk fron one block away? Since when does everyone become eligible for the handicapped spot while the wheelchair has to be wheeled from a block away? Why say that your neighbor is only half jewish because he does not look exactly like you?? Why not actually acknowledge people you pass on Shabbos? Now we’re shocked when we GO to New York and someone says “A gitten Shabbos”!!!! Why do people say they have to wait until a non jew is driving by to be able to cross the street or pull out of the driveway? Let’s think about each other. Help each other. It might make lots of the growth issues much more manageable.
May we all be zoche to move to Yerushalayim together in the near future!! Gut Shabbos to all.
deepthinker: seriously, are you for real? sounds too impossible?
I looked and could not find any reliable information to verify deepthinker’s claims. However, it is interesting that the government is encouraging pregnant women to get the vaccine.