Shannon Mullen

@MullenAPP

LAKEWOOD - More duplexes are coming to Route 9 near the Toms River border, even as both towns wait for a state-sponsored study looking at ways to ease severe congestion on the busy thoroughfare.

This week, the Planning Board approved plans by local developer Yehoshua Frankel to build a new subdivision of 12 housing lots for a total of six duplexes on the west side of Route 9, in the southern end of town just north of Route 70. Counting basement apartments, the duplexes can house a total of 24 families.

Built around a new cul-de-sac, which the developer proposes to call Hopeful Lane, the duplex community will be located across the street from the Camping World of New Jersey recreational vehicle dealership. There is currently a shuttered service station and a vacant house on the site.

Frankel also received the board’s approval to build a two-story office building on the southeast corner of the property.

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More cars

The future residents and office occupants are sure to add additional vehicle traffic to an already overtaxed highway, which has only one lane in each direction through Lakewood and northern Toms River.

Local residents turned out in force last year to lobby a roomful of engineers and other transportation experts to widen the highway, something state officials have stressed would be prohibitively expensive, “in the many hundreds of millions of dollars,” as one official put it. The chief cost driver is the anticipated cost of acquiring property along both sides of the densely developed highway.

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An ongoing study by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, in coordination with state, county and local planning officials, is focused instead on “low-cost, high-impact” remedies that could improve traffic flow and public safety. These might include zoning changes, bicycle lanes, spaces for buses to pull off the road and better crosswalks for pedestrians.

Public hearings on the planning authority's draft plan are expected to be held this summer.

In the meantime, the bottlenecks continue. On a typical weekday, between 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., northbound traffic in the three miles of Route 9 running through Lakewood creeps along at just 12 mph, according to the planning authority’s data, and it’s more of the same for motorists during afternoon rush hours. It can take some schoolchildren up to 90 minutes to get to and from their schools, the data showed.

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The duplex project required several variances, including ones for minimum lot size (24,034 square feet, instead of the required 43,560 square feet), and minimum rear yard setback (10 feet, rather than the required 50 feet). The board voted 4 to 2 to approve both the duplexes and the office building, with board members Michael Neiman and David Hibberson voting no.

In other business at Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting, the board approved two new yeshivas, both in the southern portion of town.

Yeshiva Philip Hirth Academy, Inc. plans to build a two-story elementary school on a 1.2-acre parcel on Oak Street, also in the southern portion of town. The yeshiva purchased the land from the township at public auction in March, for $407,000.

The second yeshiva, to be built by Cheder Masores Hatorah, will be a two-story elementary school for boys on a wooded 2.3-acre lot on Bellinger Street.

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