TOMS RIVER, NJ – A redevelopment plan sponsored by current Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill calls for a vision of rowhouses and high-density apartments along Route 37 near the bayfront between Fischer Boulevard and Barnegat Bay.
According to the township’s redevelopment plan, on record and available to download at the Toms River Township website, Route 37’s eastern end would be transformed into a series of rowhouses and apartment buildings along the waterfront.
The Township proposal, supported by Democrat mayoral candidate Ben Giovine, shows one of Toms River’s best sushi joints, Xina, replaced with a seven-story apartment building. Across the Street, Aqua Blue will be surrounded by a large apartment building of at least four stories and waterfront rowhouse-style apartments along the canal at the corner of the bay.
More rowhouses along the canals would be built behind existing commercial storefronts.
On the north side of Route 37, existing storefronts would be demolished and replaced with more rowhouses along the frontage of Route 37. Existing open spaces would be filled with more houses and apartments.
“There’s no more room left to build in Toms River and the people do not want bigger and taller apartment buildings,” Councilman Dan Rodrick said when shown the renderings that had not been widely available until this week. “I will fight any plan that calls for turning our town into a city.”
His opponent, Ben Giovine disagrees.
“We shouldn’t be afraid to have open and honest conversations about future development in Toms River. We know we need to make investments in resiliency and transportation,” Giovine said of the need for more apartments and housing in Toms River. “And most importantly, we need to prepare Toms River not just for the next 10 years but for the next 50 years.”
Rodrick countered Giovine by saying, “Ben believes that Toms River needs more high-density housing. He also believes we should all drive electric vehicles as he does; he wants to take away our gas stoves, our right to bear arms, and to keep parents in the dark on parental rights issues when it concerns their children. All of his ideas are not only bad, but dangerous.”