The Lakewood Industrial Commission needs to get their act straight so they can know when to stay silent as their comments are pointless, and when they could and should speak up.
Lakewood Township's Planning Board last week approved an office building expansion on Towbin Avenue.
Their existing parking lot meets the Township ordinance requirements for both their existing and new buildings so they had no need to add any additional parking, nor did the Planning Board have any jurisdiction to demand that they add any additional parking.
Still, the LIC sent the Board a letter urging them "to give serious thought and scrutiny to the proposed parking capacity. In concert with the township committee and Industrial Park companies, the LIC is helping to prepare a plan to significantly limit on-street parking, which will necessitate property owners to provide for onsite parking sufficient to meet their needs over time. These restrictions will be widely placed and enforced in order to maintain free flow of traffic and safety.
"The Industrial Commission also notes that this portion of Towbin Avenue is a used as a main point of ingress and egress by the County of Ocean to access the Ocean County Recycling Center," the letter continues.
The time and place for the LIC to remind the Township that they have grave concerns regarding on-street parking throughout the industrial park would have been... (and can still be) during the Township's review of their proposed banquet hall ordinance!
Once the ordinance is set, no amount of "urging the Planning Board to require more than what's required" is worth anything!
However, the LIC has been completely silent regarding the proposed banquet hall ordinance which the Planning Board has recommended to permit specifically in the Industrial zone!
As previously reported here on FAA News, even when members of the public straight up urged the LIC to voice opposition to the Township regarding the proposed banquet hall ordinance - for the very same reason that they now urged the Planning Board to "give serious thought and scrutiny to the proposed parking capacity" (because they are working so hard to eliminate on-street parking throughout the industrial park - the LIC simply sat there with their arms folded saying "we are not a standard advocacy group of Township business which is set by the Township Committee!"
The LIC, which oversees the Lakewood Industrial Parks and markets themselves (according to their website) to act "as a business community ombudsman on behalf of the township, promoting the growth of business in the parks since its inception in the 1960s," truly has some living up to do.
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