Residents Told Growth Would Be Limited — Until Developers Finished the Roads. Now Taxpayers Are Paying Instead.
Back in December 2024, despite fierce opposition from residents, Lakewood’s Township Committee pushed through two sweeping ordinances that radically reshaped land use along the township’s eastern border. Officials sold the move as “responsible growth,” insisting that massive new development would not move forward unless — and until — private developers paid to construct new roads and infrastructure.
That promise is now unraveling.
The ordinances created a sprawling School Overlay Zone, opening the door to new schools, dormitories, wedding halls, and mid-rise apartment buildings up to 65 feet high in an area east of the Jackson border, northeast of Farady Avenue, west of Cross Street, and south of Maplehurst Avenue.
Under the new zoning scheme, schools are permitted to:
Construct stand-alone dormitories as a primary use
Build housing for married students and staff, including apartment buildings
Operate wedding halls as accessory uses, subject to Planning Board approval
At the same time, the Township adopted a second ordinance creating the Newport Road Joint Venture, a consortium of developers that officials claimed would be responsible for financing two new public roadways, along with potable water and sanitary sewer infrastructure.
Township leaders were explicit:
No new approvals. No certificates of occupancy. No green lights — until the roads and utilities were built.
The ordinances were marketed as inseparable safeguards, with approvals in the School Overlay Zone frozen until:
Sewer and water infrastructure were installed, and
At least three means of egress existed from the zone (Franklin, Newport, Maplehurst or Brush)
Residents were told this was the price developers would have to pay for density.
That narrative took a dramatic turn this week.
Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) announced that $2 million in federal earmark funding has been secured for Lakewood Township to improve roadway, drainage, and sewer infrastructure along the very corridors tied to the controversial development — including Maplehurst Avenue, Newport Avenue, Franklin Boulevard, Cross Street, and Faraday Avenue.
In other words:
The roads developers were supposed to pay for may now be funded by taxpayers.
The $2 million allocation is part of a broader $23.8 million federal spending package Smith secured for projects across Ocean and Monmouth counties. His office describes the earmarks as addressing infrastructure, public safety, environmental, and humanitarian needs.
But critics say the timing — and the geography — raise serious questions.
What Lakewood residents were told would be a developer-funded prerequisite for intense new construction now appears to be morphing into a federally subsidized bailout — clearing the path for precisely the growth neighbors warned about.
Opponents argue that the Township’s assurances were never about limiting development, but merely delaying it until someone else picked up the tab.
With federal dollars now flowing into the very infrastructure developers were supposed to finance themselves, residents are asking the question Township officials never answered:
Was the “no roads, no approvals” promise ever real — or was it always just a placeholder until Washington paid the bill?
Curious minds also wonder which Lakewood developers are connected enough to secure funding for infrastructure from the federal government.
Perhaps most glaringly, questions arise why the Township Committee supported federal funding for roads which will only support the developers when they could have instead sought funding for main roadways which would help ease the existing traffic congestion that affects everyone.
As previously reported by FAA News, attorney Vincent J. DelRiccio, Esq. of R.C. Shea & Associates has already filed a lawsuit challenging both the School Overlay Zone and the Newport Road Joint Venture, alleging the ordinances unlawfully pave the way for unchecked overdevelopment. The Township has not yet answered the suit.
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