JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ – During a heated debate over preserving the last working farm in Lakewood Township, the Ocean County Board of Commissioners forecasted ‘plenty of homes’.
That statement came after Commissioner Joe Vicari proposed turning Lakewood’s last remaining working farms into a residential development earlier in the meeting.
Vicari said people in Lakewood need housing.
“If you look at the building going on in Jackson Township, there’s going to be plenty of homes,” Commissioner Virginia Haines said.
“Oh ya, there are going to be plenty,” Commission Jack Kelly said.
Kelly has been working with Orthodox Jewish community leaders in Jackson and Lakewood on possible infrastructure upgrades, but has thus far not been very receptive during closed-door talks.
Jackson’s latest building boom is already stressing many key roadways in town including East Veterans Highway and Hope Chapel Road where daily traffic backups have become the norm.
With thousands of new homes approved to be built on small two-lane rural roads that have not been improved since the 1980s, that traffic is expected to get worse in coming years and the county has no plan to improve county roads such as Route 571, East Veterans Highway, Whitesville Road and Hope Chapel Road.
Kelly has been accused by community leaders in Jackson of ignoring the town’s infrastructure needs in favor of projects in places like Toms River, Brick and southern county towns.