Explosive Growth Not Too Smart

Smart Growth_wm(Letter sent to the APP) I attended the Oct. 29 Lakewood Smart Growth Plan meeting in Lakewood High School. The plan presented involved the widening of Route 9, building community centers, large office buildings, housing developments, stores and park-like settings accessible to all within walking distance. This, they said, would bring jobs to the industrial area which is the second largest in the state. Who are they kidding? They are putting schools in the empty factories. Why would you put a school in a factory? Who is paying the taxes?

The impact on the environment alone is frightening. Water supplies, wells and sewers will be affected. When asked who will pay for all the development, we were told the taxpayers. This will put a large tax burden on the senior communities.

In the paper the following day, Mayor Robert Singer said if the plan does not come to pass, what will be built will be hodgepodge. (“Explosive growth in Lakewood foreseen,” Oct. 29.)

Sorry, but the township approves permits and plans. This plan is for one group of people only. The officials are elected by the people and for all the people.

Maureen Wolff

LAKEWOOD

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22 COMMENTS

  1. if it doesn’t come through, the growth will happen anyways. we love lakewood and we love bmg . we want to stay here with our children and grandchildren and feel its our G-d given responsibilty to have lots of children . don’t plan properly we will just have a hodgepodge situation . as to the bldgs in industrial park. they were empty and cheap. jobs are jobs. there were lots of teaching jobs , janitorial jobs , etc created by schools. schools right now are the only thing flourishing now. do they bother you? NO. they are private law abiding citizens who want to educate their kids their own way . Maureen , this is a free country . And as much as it makes you cringe to see ultra orthodox jews, we have every right to be here and raise our families here . Nobody is intruding on the senior complexes. the taxes are very low on seniors and stay that way . we are the ones with the huge tax burden . please find another cause to kvetch about, like your about to lose medicare benefits with obamacare . now that’s a a fight worth fighting

  2. sheker sheker sheker

    normal people realize that you can’t prevent development of a city forever. uless you own a parcel of land you can’t stop if from being developed. putting schools in industrial park is a great idea. certainly make sure there is proper zoning orsinances, but do these seniors forget that they were once kids….?

  3. people paying property tax for a useless public school system in addition to private tuition have the highest burden of all.

    I propose that this monday every single private school student sign up and reguster for public school…

  4. Maureen is right. It is a shame but at the hearing the 85% of the people from our community who spoke on this issues had agendas like Chambersbridge daughter, affordable housing , Cheder and Lightstone Group. The average “hamon am” who was present were taken aback that our wonderful senoir neighborhoods had very valid points and it was a shame that the township committe was ignoring them because the committee has to answer to the few yechidim that have “clout”. I would love for the cheder to get their building Let them reach out to the seniors and work with them instead of shoving this issue down their throat. The torah says treat people properly. Are our askonim doing that and reaching out to the senoirs? Mach nisht kinzim

  5. I am a Yid. No one can accuse me of anti-semitism. But I totally agree with the seniors. This plan is going to ruin the quiet of Lakewood. I moved here to get away from Boro Park, and now you are making Lakewood into Boro Park. A shanda!!!

  6. When I see the words smart growth I just can’t control my thumbs. The truth of the matter is every town and every city grows naturally with demand. The plan that is being proposed is not in demand,nor needed ,but is being implemented to create demand.
    True smart growth is looking at what needs repair and fixing it creatively for future needs.Of course the cheder needs and deserves a building.Of course businesses in undustrial parks need to be able to grow.
    All these things could have been implemented without intertwining them with the smart growth plan.
    Our towns UEZ and LDC are being misused for pet projects with no regard to the needs of the town as a whole.
    This in turn causes a downward spiral of one bad idea being thrown after another,favor for favor. Blue claws,cedarbridge,strand theatre,seven story garage.
    These are all examples of the real growth that has been going on in our town. We have the chutzpah to dress it up with words like “smart growth”or “new urbanism”. These concepts are misused by those that want to make the bitter pill of overexpansion,easier to swallow.
    Our township committeemen must realize their ultimate responsibility is ,to the people of this town.
    All people old,young ,frum,modern,hispanic,legal or not,and african american deserve to feel that their best interests are looked out for,and not those of a few special interests. Of course there will be times when a specific segment of the town needs special attention. That is when making the right decisions is a challenge. It would be vainglorious to believe that growth should be planned with only one segment of the community in mind. I hope the committeemen understand the true principles of smart growth,and will not use it as a smokescreen to help others,help themselves.

  7. Ladies and Gentlemen, our beautiful Lakewood is about to be changed forever. Take a look at Monsey. Monsey used to be a beautiful sleepy village in upstate NY, near the city.

    Now it is an urban town, bulging at the seams. Take a drive down Rt 306, to see what over development can do.

    No wonder our non-frum neighbors hate it. I hate it too.

    You watch. We are in the process of turning Lakewood into worse….. and all this to enrich the developers. Let’s see how many townhomes they willl fit into each 1/2 acre. 10? Maybe 20 townhomes!! Depending on how many greenbacks go under the table.

    Enough is enough. Make a Yeshive in Sloatsburg. And then build there. What this plan will do to Lakewood is “nisht tzu gloiben”. We aill all suffer. Wake up.

  8. the will come. And then it can’t be undone. Thank you Twp. Committee, planning and zoning boards and developers for speeding up the process of driving Lakewood into bankruptcy by overdeveloping it and having all these tax exempt properties.

  9. I definitely agree with Yungerman4Christie on this one.

    There is no question that Lakewood is about to be changed forever, and only developers will benefit. The yungerleit will be squeezed into apartment buildings…..

    I like this idea of moving to Sloatsburg. When have we last heard it?!?!

  10. Yungetrman 4 Corzine making sense. Wow we are agreeing on this one. Mr. Malchi please explain why Yashrus is full of lies. If you are Malchi then you own quite a nice amount of karka and would love to subdivide every piece and put at least 7 townhomes with finished basement (To pay for the high taxes) How about everyone who isn’t connected. Were they for this “Smart Growth”?

  11. To: ToMaureen
    Wrong…if areas are zoned for commercial or industrial, you can’t put housing, and therefore you won’t be able to have residential growth, so no, it will not happen anyways. It will only happen if it’s planned to happen.

    Wrong…there is intrusion on the senior community called A Country Place. Precedence will be set and that is why the seniors in the other communities are concerned.

    Wrong…the tax burden is just as high for the seniors as anyone else. It is based on the value of the home. Have you SEEN the homes in the Fairways??? I bet not. If you choose to put your children in private school that is no one’s burden but your own. My children do not use the public school system either. But I do not kvetch about my 7k in taxes, huge percentage of which go to pay for the teaching of illegal alien’s children

    To: Hershel – couldn’t agree more

    To: Ovadi – don’t spout unless you’re going to refute…do you mind explaining just where that person is lying? I was there and Yashrus’ perception is very near correct.

  12. Yashrus, Yungerman4Corzine, and the Yid are 100% right. I’m living in Lakewood for over 30 years (you can tell because I know how to spell). Besides for the Yeshiva, one of the reasons we chose to settle here was because of the beauty of the town and the beauty of the lifestyle. Now it’s all going down the drain. That’s life. It happened to Boro Park too as I was growing up. SPeak to some old timers who will say that Boro Park was once beautiful. Overexpansion and underplanning produce ugliness and GREED. This is all for the developers and not for our community at large-Yid or not.

  13. The expansion will come, like it or not. No one is going to bar the door to additional yidden settling in Lakewood. To think otherwise is delusional. The question is do we have a plan to manage the growth, or do we let it happen organically? Planned growth minimizes the growing pains.

  14. To 8:04
    Do not fall for the false story that this is resposible expansion. It is far from it. It is free land and a chance to exploit that land for all it can produce monetarily.
    There is plenty room for this place to grow at a normal rate.this is not the only town to run from brooklyn to. And for what?in a few years it will be what we ran away from. There are other towns within an hour of bklyn for the runoff. We are not required to have every NY expat that can’t afford.a mcmansion in bklyn move here for their dream home.

  15. LEAVE ALL ZONING THE SAME OR DECREASE THE DENSITY ALLOWED. THAT S THE ONLY WAY TO CONTROL THE POPULATION EXPLOSIAN. WHO SAYS WE HAVE TO PROVIDE HOUSING FOR ALL WHO WILL WANT TO LIVE HERE. THE INFRASTRUCTURE ISN’T THERE AND THE STREETS JUST CAN’T HANDLE MANY MORE CARS. WHEN AN APARTMENT BUILDING IS FULL PROSPECTIVE TENANTS CAN’T ‘DEMAND ‘ THE OWNER TO MAKE ROOM FOR THEM! WHEN THE TOWN IS FULL, IT’S FULL!! EXPAND TO OTHER TOWNS.

  16. When my generation were getting married it was extremely hard to find an apartment. Basements were not available and very illegal. Many of us moved into aparttments in un desirable buildings. Today those buildings are nice safe and clean. And very popular rentals.
    That is how growth works. But if you keep building ne nothing will improve. The slum apartments on mlk blvd can have a few young couples move in. Nothing will happen to them. The area will grow from that quickly. Not that our desire is to chase away the african americans but if we have a need for housing and it is available we are allowed to move in if we so desire. That is the natural way growth happens. Look at other towns and neighborhoods that have changed to nice places. Manhattan is almost all cleaned up now.

  17. BUILD!!!BUILD!!!BUILD!!! People need a place to live.If you want to move to Sloatsburg or some other suburban area (and create more space in the process p)lease do so.But for those who no place to live we need this growth.I’m amazed at the hypocrisy of those who live in new construction themselves, or who wouldn’t of afforded their houses without it, complaining about new building

  18. Anon 10:25: To those who are running -away- from something, fine, choose a different destination. To those who are running -to- something (BMG), there’s little option.

Comments are closed.