Driving along Prospect Street in Lakewood has gotten a lot bumpier ever since New Jersey American Water ripped open the road for important replacement of aging water main.
Plans to repave this road with major upgrades to the drainage system continue to be halted as a number of property owners along the roadway have refused to grant Ocean County the necessary easements and rights-of-way.
The County has already been forced to take legal action against a number of property owners in order to keep the project moving forward.
The Country has just now filed legal action yet another developer, FAA News has learned.
Back in June 2022, New Jersey American Water announced that they were commencing utility upgrade projects across 3 municipalities including in Lakewood along Prospect Street and other roads.
The work involved upgrading the aging cement and cast-iron water lines that were installed as far back as the 1920s with new, thicker ductile iron main.
Additionally, as part of a statewide initiative to remove all lead and galvanized service lines by 2031, the work included replacement of any customer-owned service line that has been identified as lead or galvanized.
This investment will continue to advance water service reliability and increase water flows for household consumption and fire protection in this area.
Typically, utility companies repave roads once they complete their utility line upgrades. However, in this particular instance, Ocean County has anyways been planning to reconstruct the entire stretch of Prospect Street along with major upgrades to the drainage system and some upgrades to the existing traffic control signage. Therefore, New Jersey American Water entered into an arrangement with Ocean County for the County to do all the paving work.
The Ocean County Board of Commissioners have already committed $2.5 million to the project and County engineers have been working over the past few years on the design plans, including for the drainage system improvements.
County officials have been hard at work acquiring the necessary rights-of-way along the roadway for the various easements they need to get the project done.
However, a number of property owners along the roadway have refused to grant the necessary rights-of-way. This has led to a delay in the solicitation of bids for the project.
As a result, as previously reported here on FAA News, the County has already been forced to file legal action against the property owners, seeking for condemnations of the necessary rights-of-way.
County attorneys have filed legal action against 319 Prospect LLC and Prospect Homeowners Inc. As they failed to even show up in Court, Ocean County Superior Court Assignment Judge Francis Hodgson granted the taking of the right-of-way, and he permitted the County to deposit $3,500 in a court trust account. This is the amount that the County appraised the value of the taking. The property owners are welcome to pick up their money from the Court Clerk.
There are 3 legal fillings which remain pending.
County attorney have filed legal action against 301 Prospect LLC. The County has appraised the value of the taking at $18,700. Judge Hodgson has just signed the initial application, with a decision to be rendered later this month.
More recently, County attorneys have filed legal action against Yerek 601 LLC and Congregation Kesser Bais Yaakov. The County has appraised the value of the taking to acquire an overhead utility easement at $22,700. Judge Hodgson has just signed the initial application, with a decision to be rendered later this month.
County attorneys have also filed legal action against Daniel Velasco and Mayra Apraez. This filing is in its initial stages so no hearing has been set yet.
Additionally, County attorneys have now also filed legal action against SK Prospect Lakewood LLC, which is registered to Joseph Sebbag.
The County requires a right-of-way acquisition of 926.15 sq feet, which is confined to a triangular strip of land that runs parallel to Prospect Street at a maximum depth of just over 4 feet at the eastern portion of the site.
Additionally, the County's project requires a permanent easement of 52.50 sq feet to permit for the installation of a utility pole and guy wire, as well as two temporary easements outside the road right-of-way for grading the lands adjacent to the project. The temporary easements will become built null and void upon completion of the project.
County officials have valued the right-of-way acquisition at $26,858, and the permanent easement at $381, for a total of $27,300. Additionally, annual rent of the temporary easements for the duration of the construction project is valued at $8,300.
As the County's legal action for this condemnation was just filed, no court hearing date has been set yet.
None of these property owners have given any explanation as to why they are delaying the repaving of the road.
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