Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/12/06
BY NICHOLAS CLUNN
MANAHAWKIN BUREAU

LACEY — State officials may have stopped a controversial township plan to build a road on a strip of land that some residents want used entirely for a recreational trail.

Officials with the Department of Environmental Protection rejected the proposed road project when they denied the township a key permit needed to build along coastal areas deemed environmentally sensitive.

Township officials had asked the DEP for permission to build the three-quarter-mile road and a bike path over an abandoned railway bed near a heavy-traffic area in Forked River.

The two-lane road would alleviate congestion on a nearby section of Route 9 by providing a parallel road for local drivers, they said.

State officials agreed, but only to a point. Traffic diversions, they wrote in a denial letter, would not be significant enough to warrant construction.
From the letter, it appeared that state officials wanted better reasons to approve a road that would cover land they valued as public open space.
"As you can imagine, we are dissatisfied and very disappointed in the denial," Mayor Mark Dykoff said Tuesday. "It doesn't look like they took into account the opinions of the state Department of Transportation and the county."

A transportation department manager and the Ocean County Board of Freeholders sent letters to environmental officials supporting the road as a way to reduce the number of vehicles on Route 9, according to the letter.

But environmental officials also received letters from road opponents, who included concerned residents and five environmental advocacy groups.

They contend that the entire railway bed should become a rail-trail, or a linear park with a 14-mile path that would provide pedestrian and bicycle access in Lacey and four other Ocean County towns.
Helen Henderson, chairwoman of the Lacey Rail-Trail Environmental Committee and a township resident, said she anticipated the development of a trail without a road.

"Ocean County citizens deserve an opportunity to have this trail completed as soon as possible," she said. "It's going to be an amazing addition to the county park system. We can't wait for it to finally happen."

But it was unclear Tuesday what would happen to the railway bed, which is now a sandy strip flanked by trees. The tracks and ties were removed some years back.

If the road is approved, the township has plans to eventually expand it north to South Street. Work on the $2.3 million first phase from Lacey Road to First Street would have started as soon as December, township officials have said.

Dykoff said he will meet with other members of the Township Committee soon to talk about what recourse, if any, the township might take.
Lacey has the option to appeal to decision to the DEP.

Doing so would keep alive an idea that's been around since 1990, when the township Planning Board added it to Lacey's master plan.

Nicholas Clunn: (609) 978-4597