Lakewood Township meeting

Here is what's happening in your community. Not that you have any say or power in it:

Tri-Town News :

...Deputy Mayor Meir Lichtenstein discussed two proposed ordinances that could appear for first reading on the governing body’s Nov. 3 agenda.
One ordinance would enable the township zoning officer to approve fences higher than 8 feet tall without requiring that they be set back 5 feet from the property line for each additional foot in height...
“Due to the fact that there is a large part of the community that needs more than 4- or 6-foot fences, we have asked that the committee consider an ordinance that will allow more than the UDO (Unified Development Ordinance),” Lichtenstein said. “At a certain height, the fence would have certain proper engineering or architecture.”
Referring to Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish community, Mack said the privacy fences were being built as a result of religious doctrine.
Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish community does not permit women of its faith to be seen in public in bathing suits. As a result, many families either erect fences high enough to block off their neighbors’ view or hang blue tarpaulins around their property for privacy...
In addition to regulating the height of privacy fences, Lichtenstein made a presentation for a proposed ordinance that would enable students to attend religious school classes in trailers stationed on construction sites where permanent buildings were being erected...

“Some of the nonprofits came to us and said they needed a place [for] a school trailer on the property with permission, if and only if, the school is making progress and has plans before the Planning Board to build their regular building,” Lichtenstein said. “Obviously, we don’t want people dropping trailers and leaving them there for a few years.”

Committee members have said in previous meetings that they would continue auctioning land that is deed restricted for educational purposes so that Orthodox Jewish religious schools could be constructed.
During committee meeting public forums, residents have protested the increasing number of Orthodox religious schools being built in the Lakewood Industrial Park. Since the schools are nonprofit organizations, they do not pay taxes to the township. Committee members expressed the hope that by auctioning deed-restricted land parcels, the growing Orthodox community could be dissuaded from seeking to lease or purchase land in commercially zoned areas...