I’m a developer in town (and other towns) and I want to chime in to the conversation about the building and overcrowding people have been talking about in a recent letter.
I am someone who would never propose building a home or homes if it’s not something I would want next to my home. For years, I’ve seen developers stuffing multiple homes in a small lot, but it was never near their homes. My policy always is, if it’s not something I would want in my neighborhood, why do it to someone else? Why is my quality of living more important than theirs?
That was the way I always built and will continue to live by this model Iyh.
I believe it’s a tremendous avla being done by the local boards (who by the way I agree should have term limits). There is no reason residents need to shell out thousands of dollars to fight overcrowding near their homes.
There is nothing wrong with people wanting to move into a town, but there is something very wrong with overcrowding an area because you are friends with the people on the boards and can “pull it off”. It’s not yashrus, and it negatively affects people’s way of life.
As a side point, you should not need “pull” to get an application approved. All my applications have so far been approved, because I submit them according to the law, never lie on anything, and never fudge numbers. And B”H, I have parnassa in a kosher way.
Unfortunately I feel it’s too late to fix the infrastructure in town, which is why many are choosing to move from Lakewood to neighboring towns where there are stricter rules and regulations. People want to live in peace and quiet, and I respect that. I want the same for my family.
With regards to people having to go to the County courts for oversight, I believe there is nothing wrong with that. If I or anyone lied on an application and received an approval based on that, it’s absolute sheker and ganeiva, and I would hope a judge sees through it and overturns it. There is no reason hundreds of people have to suffer because of a greedy developer. If a developer tried the same in my area, I’m sure my neighbors would expect the same.
I’m a big fan of people earning a parnassa, but do it with yashrus.
A developer.
(TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected])
very nice letter
Kol hakavod!!! I give you a bracha tht you should earn your honest parnassah and have a huge flow of it.. in the zchus of your yashrus!
I always wondered how this isn’t assur gamur a lot of gehenem for this. Where are the rabbanim?!
Why not tell us which Halacha?
Why Geihenom if it’s not assur?
Perhaps Rabbonim know Halacha better than you
What are you talking about ???? Nothing is chas v’sholom being done without yashrus !!
No one gains by earning money in a shaker way etc. Us old time lakewooders have seen many builders who overcrowded building, and were officially gevirim. Only to be totally out of business and financial broke.
You’re not just a developer. you’re a wonderful yid who is including Torah values in his parnassah. You should be blessed and you should only see parnassah with Mazal and shefa.
I’m very happy to hear that there are ehrilche developers that don’t stoop to making their money at the expense of others. May you have continued success in your endeavors.
Every profession has their good apples and bad apples. There are many which are honest and those that are not. Unfortunately, many areas in our town have suffered the brunt from those that are not. The infamous “traffic studies” these developers submit (from a certain firm) are all too often based on skewed numbers that don’t reflect the known realities. The ramifications create horrible results for the innocent neighbors and residents who were unaware of the games employed by those developers.
Take for instance what occurred during the planning board hearing last month. An entire neighborhood came out to demand of the members to fix the impending disaster cast upon it by the callous machinations of a rogue developer. All that were present saw clearly how the numbers were fudged again and again. Had the applicant been truthful upfront, his approval would’ve been very different, and folks wouldn’t be so angry. This type of stuff is simply UNACCEPTABLE.
So, if you’re the honest kind, I wish you loads of hatzlocha and lots of parnassa.
But if you fail to pass the crucial honesty test, you won’t be receiving any brachos from me. You should instead be worried about all the klalos directed your way from those in the community whom you’ve unfairly hurt by wasting hours upon hours of their lives being stuck in the mess which you created. I would also tell you to ask yourself this question; Is it really worth it to throw away your obligations towards bein adam lechaveiro just for a couple more dollars??
In the long term no one gains from this overcrowding.
I feel that the generation involved with this nonsense is to blame. They do not know any better. my prayers and thoughts are with all of you.
You earn your parnossa your way – don’t tell is how we should earn our parnosso. We’ve been doing this successfully for years and it works for us just fine.
Yes, but it does not work for others. Hence, the problem. That you apparently don’t see it as such is telling.
Typical “yeshiva bochur” response.
Accountability is not optional.
You can either be accountable to yourself, or you can have accountability bite you really hard where it hurts, when the time is ripe.
In the meantime, we’ll be making of the best of the mess you’ve created for all of us.
Your comment right on target.
as the saying goes every dog has their day
(not calling you that but thats how te saying goes)
So Yosher and Ehrlich that he won’t sign his name?
I’ve always said that even though I detest what the builders have done to this town that I’ve watched deteriorate during the 45 years I’ve lived here, the builders are just trying to make a buck. It’s the local governing boards, who are supposed to represent the Lakewood residents, who have issued variances to their builder friends, or who have overlooked the shtick of those not so ehrlich builders, who are even more at fault. Even if they didn’t personally benefit from the unrestrained building, they were incompetent and negligent in the job they were appointed to do. Those are the people that make me so upset. And those are the people we elect again and again, like sheep.
As a non-Orthodox and fellow resident of a neighboring town, I am glad the average Lakewood Orthodox resident is seeing how detrimental the reckless overdevelopment has been to infrastructure and quality of life. Many of us non-Orthodox understand your community needs housing and religious infrastructure. We just don’t want to see what happened in Lakewood spread to northern Ocean County and Southern Monmouth County. Imagine how much more of a nightmare the region would become if it ended up like Lakewood. I urge your Orthodox leaders and developers to plan better so the regions infrastructure and public school funding can accommodate the growth.
Here is the solution. Make a clear rule: No cul-de-sacs or circular roads to nowhere. If every new road had to start and end on a different road, most of our traffic problems would disappear.
Nothing else will be as beneficial as this rule
When will the citizens of Lakewood say no to developers who continually request tax abatements ? When property taxes are raised to cover missing revenue due to tax abatements citizens should stand up and just say no to this expensive requests.
To number 14. That was a wonderful post. No town wants to be like Lakewood. Over crowded and awful traffic. If so we would all have stayed up North. The roads are constantly in repair. Route 9 is a horror. This has nothing to do with being anti Semitic. That’s all you hear. It is not true. Let Lakewood build up. Plus the school systems and taxes go up for public school. How long can Lakewood public school get loans> Not much longer.Bui;d more apartmentss up with several floors
how do we know he is not a troll when its unsigned?
If 98% of Lakewood is unhappy about the planning/Zoning Board’s decisions & suffering from them on a daily basis, why have they not resigned? Why have they not been replaced? Where are the township committee members who installed them? Why is nothing being done to mitigate the poor decision made? Why is no one taking responsibility for fixing this mess? Why are we trusting them to make better decisions going forward?
Have the interests of 98% of the Kehilah been represented by the local government making decisions for us?
Posting complaints on TLS for the next 10 years will do nothing if the people making decisions aren’t taking this seriously & it’s business as usual at the top.
In short: How did we get here, & how do we get back to normal in this town? Does federal imminent domain need to be activated which will allow the township to break roads through existing developments & allow traffic to flow normally once again?
I welcome every person who wants to live here to come over, we can build skyscrapers here, as long as the township has a way for us to move around this town. We might need roads to be built over existing roadways & developments as is done in congested cities, like the BQE.
The citizens of this town deserve better from our elected officials.
Because we don’t vote our own interests, and nobody even campaigns on our interests.
Lame slogans like ‘no more building’ or ‘lower taxes’ are useless. Someone should run a campaign based on people’s needs. Listen to them. You won’t get 100% of the vote, because different people have different needs. But whatever helps the majority of people in town should win
Very nice letter. I don’t agree with the comments that no one likes lakewood. Clearly many people love it bec everyone is moving here! It’s a young, beautiful and diverse town. Also, yes, there is infrastructure issues and traffic. Like many busy towns.