Shannon Mullen

@MullenAPP

LAKEWOOD - One of the most conspicuous types of road signs here are bright orange, diamond-shaped and carry a two-word message that could be a fitting slogan for this town in 2016 and beyond.

"Construction ahead."

With dozens of active work sites scattered all over town, lately it seems like Lakewood is one, big construction zone.

And after a bumper crop of Planning Board approvals last year, it's unlikely that the dizzying pace of development is going to slacken anytime soon, much to the dismay of residents like Michael McLaughlin.

"They're taking a suburban environment and turning it into an urban metropolis," said the 67-year-old resident of Horizons at Woodlake Greens, an adult community on the eastern end of town. "I don't think that's a smart plan."

Smart or not, that is the plan: to create thousands of new homes over the next decade to accommodate the explosive growth of Lakewood's Orthodox Jewish community.

A retired retail marketing director, McLaughlin has become a regular at the township's Planning Board meetings, along with fellow adult community resident John Antonas, 73, a retired attorney who served as an assistant U.S. attorney and assistant district attorney for Manhattan prior to going into private practice. For months now, the two men have sat in the audience, agendas in hand, and watched the plan unfold, one application at a time.

How many projects has the Planning Board approved in the past three years? Read the chart at the end of this story.

It's not everybody's idea of a fun night out, but there's usually plenty of action. Last year alone, the board approved 144 applications, up from 114 approvals in 2014. Among them were new subdivisions totaling more than 1,100 new housing units, as well as dozens of new yeshivas, synagogues and commercial buildings.

"Basically, they approve everything," observed Thomas G. Gatti, the chairman of a grassroots coalition of adult community residents called the Senior Action Group, whose restive constituents have become outspoken critics of Lakewood's fast-track growth.

Seniors feel slighted

At the end of last year, the group's leaders, who represents the interests of an estimated 14,000 seniors living in the township’s adult communities, lobbied to have either McLaughlin or Antonas, or both, appointed to the Planning Board, a majority of whose members are from the Orthodox Jewish community.

YOUR TURN: How is Lakewood's dramatic growth affecting you? 'Like' us on Facebook and tell us in the comments .

Both men met with then-Mayor Albert Akerman in December and came away feeling confident that at least one of them would be selected for one of the openings on the board.

WATCH - Building boom along Lakewood's New Hampshire Ave.

But at the Township Committee’s reorganization meeting Jan. 1, Republican committeeman Menashe Miller was chosen to serve as mayor this year, and he didn’t include either man among his appointments.

“I think we got snookered,” McLaughlin said.

Miller re-appointed two sitting board members, Justin Flancbaum and Eli Rennert, along with Yaakov Sussman, who had served on the board but resigned last year. Miller chose Eugene J. Cautillo, Israel Grunberger and David Hibberson to fill the remaining three seats.

Gatti says his group feels slighted by the snub.

“They try to bring us in, they try to make us feel part of the system, and then they do the complete opposite,” he said, referring to the group’s dealings with Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish political leaders. "What they've done now is really kicked a hornet's nest, big time."

Miller could not be reached for comment, but Akerman insisted that he was up front with the group, and made it clear from the onset that there were other candidates in line for the seats. He said he made no promises to select either man.

Akerman said he understood that the seniors group wanted to see the board become more diverse and include more non-Orthodox members. He said the selection of Cautillo and Hibberson accomplished that.

Both are residents of adult communities — Cautillo, 73, lives in Lions Head Woods, while Hibberson, 87, lives in Harrogate — and have served together on the township’s transportation advisory committee.

“We did diversify the board, as they requested,” Akerman said.

Hibberson, an Englishman by birth, said he worked as a chemist for a copper mining firm in Zambia as a younger man and later served as chief engineer for an electronics company in the U.S. He has been active on various township advisory boards since he moved to Lakewood 18 years ago.

“My personal opinion is there needs to be a greater concern for senior groups in the township,” he said. He said he is a member of the Senior Action Group, though Gatti said he had not met him before.

Cautillo said he hoped to bring “stability and reason” to the board.

“When they asked me and I accepted I made it very clear that my head is not just going to go up and down,” he said. “I want to look at everything on its merit and make a good decision.”

Absences continue

Akerman cited the strong attendance records of Cautillo and Hibberson as one of the main reasons for their selection. Chronic absenteeism has been a longstanding problem on the Planning Board, which sometimes lacks a quorum. Complicating matters is the fact that the members who do show up sometimes have to recuse themselves from hearing applications, due to business dealings or other conflicts of interest with the developers or property owners.

As it turned out, Cautillo was among three no-shows Jan. 5 at the board's first meeting of the year. Cautillo said he hadn’t been informed about the meeting. Sussman and Grunberger, who is the mayor’s representative on the board, were also absent. The absences drew the ire of longtime board member John Franklin.

“Why aren’t these people here? It’s the first meeting,” he said. “If that’s the way they’re going to be all year they shouldn’t be on the board.”

New school approved

The meeting drew dozens of parents and other supporters of Toras Imecha, an Orthodox girls’ elementary school, which won approval of its plan to construct a new, two-story school building at 970 East County Line Road, just west of Bartenura Road. The 14,000-square-foot school will be able to accommodate 360 students.

In deference to the concerns of adjacent property owners, the school agreed not to include any windows or entrances on the building’s east side, and to relocate a garbage container to the west side of the building.

The board's decision came as a relief to Victor Sabbagh, who has three daughters who are students at the school. He said Toras Imecha’s existing building, on East 13th Street, can no longer keep pace with the many new families moving into the area.

“It took me a year to get my kids in the school because they didn’t have room in the classes,” he said.

Lakewood seniors: Growth is out of control

The board's next regular meeting is Jan. 19. Among the items on the agenda is a public hearing on a proposal by another Orthodox Jewish school, Yeshiva Ohr Yissochor Academy, at 300 Cross St., to construct an educational campus with new school buildings and a 230-unit multifamily apartment complex for students and staff. The site is adjacent to The Fairways adult community, which has hired an attorney to contest the application.

McLaughlin and Antonas are sure to arrive at the meeting early, to snag a pair of seats up front.

Shannon Mullen: 732-643-4278; smullen4@gannettnj.com