The State Planning Commission has just approved Lakewood Township's plans for a new solid waste transfer station and Hatzolah building near the current Department of Public Works yard on America Avenue, FAA News has learned.
Township officials have been planning for a number of years to build a Solid Waste Transfer Station, capable of processing 300 tons of municipal waste per day in order to increase the Township's trash pickup capacity.
Currently, as soon as Public Works trash pickup trucks fill up, they need to go directly to the sanitary landfill facility in Manchester Township to unload. As this facility is only open until the early afternoon hours, after hours the Township's trucks need to wait at Public Works until the next morning in order to be able to go to unload at the sanitary landfill facility.
By constructing an in-house Solid Waste Transfer Station, the Township would be able to discharge, compact and then reload into semi trailers 300 tons of municipal solid waste per day. This would then free up the trash trucks to do additional runs without needing to hold them in Public Works until the next morning.
The project requires NJDEP coordination and permits, and Township officials, engineered by Remington & Vernick Engineers, have been working for a number of years on this project.
As part of this larger process, as previously reported here on FAA News, back in February 2023, the Township Committee submitted this project as an amendment to the previously approved State Plan Policy Map. Approval of the proposed amendment would allow for an increase in permitted impervious cover and a reduction in vegetative cover requirements.
The plan proposal documents submitted by the Township indicated that a granting of the proposed State Plan Policy Map amendment to permit construction of a solid waste transfer station would support the implementation of recommendations of the 2011 Ocean County Comprehensive Master Plan, which includes continuing County economic development efforts to reduce unemployment, connect residents to local year-round employment opportunities, and enhance the tax base by encouraging compatible industrial and commercial operations to locate or expand in Ocean County.
Plan proposal documents further stated that a granting of the proposed State Plan Policy Map amendment would be consistent with smart growth principles because it directs development toward existing communities (i.e., locations where there is existing development), which, in turn, maximizes the efficiency of infrastructure investment and service delivery, as well as limits sprawl-type development, and that this project would encourage future residential and non-residential growth by improving service delivery and the ability of the Township to provide an essential service (i.e., solid waste collection and disposal) in support of existing and future development.
Plan proposal documents also indicated that a granting of the proposed State Plan Policy Map amendment to permit construction of a solid waste transfer station would support the implementation and advancement of several land use, utility, and economic development strategies provided in the 2017 Lakewood Township Master Plan including continuing to promote economic prosperity and sound fiscal planning as the improved service delivery and ability of the Township to provide an essential service (i.e., solid waste collection and disposal) that would result from said facility would, in turn, promote economic development of the Township by attracting new non-residential development.
These promises are quite interesting as the Township Department of Public Works currently only picks up trash from residences, nonpublic schools and Downtown businesses, but not any new businesses including industrial uses in the Township, so it's unclear how construction of this Waste Transfer station would promote economic development of the Township by attracting new non-residential development.
Included in this proposed amendment (which would allow for an increase in permitted impervious cover and a reduction in vegetative cover requirements) is also a parcel of land that the Township Committee previously sold to Hatzolah at private sale for nominal consideration of $1. (The Hatzolah lot is Block 554 Lot 1 as shown on the below map). Drexel Avenue, which is shown on this map, was already vacated by the Committee. The Solid Waste Transfer station is proposed on Block 549.02 Lot 1, adjacent to the resident drop-off lot.
On June 21, 2023, the Office of Planning Advocacy within the Department of State approved the Master Plan amendment, and submitted same for consideration to the State Planning Commission.
On July 5, 2023, the State Planning Commission voted to accept the Master Plan amendment, thus clearing a major hurdle in the path of the Township's plan for a new solid waste transfer station and Hatzolah building near the current Department of Public Works yard on America Avenue.
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