TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS SAY THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF DEALING WITH TRUCKS PARKED ON LOCAL ROADS

For the past few months there has been an uptick in random trucks, including unhitched trailers, being parked on local roadways in Lakewood.

This problem is especially prevalent in the industrial park.

At this week's Industrial Commission meeting, Executive Director Steven Reinman insisted, "it's really hard to identify who is parking these trucks on our roads. However, even if we do, there is not really much that we can do about this. We don't have a lot of ordinances governing regarding on-street parking in the parks. Given the current regulatory climate that we have with regards to ordinances for governing on-street parking, there is not very much that we can do about this."

Mr. Reinman added that this is actually a national issue as truckers have no place to park nationwide. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Transportation just announced $80 million in federal grants to help local governments provide solutions for expanding access to truck parking. Mr. Reinman stated that he will research this grant and see if Lakewood could pursue such funding, saying, "we would like to get some solutions and offer them."

It's unclear what Mr. Reinman meant when he insisted that "given the current regulatory climate that we have with regards to ordinances for governing on-street parking, there is not very much that we can do about this," as the Township Committee governs the Township's parking ordinances and they certainly do have the authority to enact parking restrictions on our roadways.

Additionally, a couple of years ago, before the LIC constructed their park-and-ride lot on Swarthmore Avenue, Mr. Reinman stated that the parking lot was going to be constructed in response to many complaints from local businesses regarding on-street parking throughout the industrial park, and he added that once the park-and-ride lot was completed, the Township would enact parking restrictions along the industrial park roads.

As the construction of the park-and-ride lot is long completed, it's quite odd why the Township never enacted the promised parking restrictions.

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