Plan to Split Route 35, Require Diagonal Reverse-In Parking in Lavallette to Get Hearing

Lavallette’s downtown business district. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

A plan that would split Route 35 into a two-lane roadway in each direction, require back-in diagonal parking and reduce the speed limit to 25 m.p.h. even in the winter will be the subject of a hearing next month in Lavallette.

The plan, which is yet to be finalized by the state Department of Transportation, was floated late last year and announced to the public in January after a team from Trenton surveyed the roadway in the off-season. Mayor Walter LaCicero said despite vehement objections from borough officials and its police chief, certain controversial aspects of the plan have survived and are expected to be presented during a meeting that will be held at borough hall in July. LaCicero said the plan emerged after someone at the department determined that there were too many accidents on the roadway.

The aspect of the plan drawing the most concern is a purported action that would see the re-painting of parking space stripes along Route 35 North in Lavallette’s business district to face the opposite way of traffic. This would force vehicles to pass the space in which they want to park, place their car in reverse while in the lane of traffic, then back into the space on a diagonal trajectory. LaCicero said such an arrangement in Lavallette would crate “madness” since cars already stack up in bumper-to-bumper fashion during the summer months, which could cause perpetual delays when vehicles must stop while a driver backs in. There are also concerns it could lead not only to road rage incidents, but a high number of accidents when drivers bump other vehicles while awkwardly attempting to pull into the space on an angle from ahead.

---

Get Daily Island News Updates Your email address:* Please enter all required fields Correct invalid entries

Some transportation engineers believe such parking styles are safer since they force drivers to pull out of a space without nudging their way into traffic, and is also safer for people in bike lanes – which would also be part of the Route 35 plan – but opponents argue that reverse-in diagonal parking causes traffic jams and would spike the number of minor fender-benders to which police would have to respond. In New Jersey, two municipalities have such parking layouts – Hoboken and Sea Bright.

“It only takes one person at a state agency to push something like this,” said LaCicero. “Apparently, according to the chief of police, this is still on the table even after we voiced our displeasure.”

This is not the first time the state has proposed such a configuration. After the highway was rebuilt following Superstorm Sandy, a similar measure was under consideration, but was ultimately scrapped after objections from local leaders.

“They suggested it to us back then, and at the time, there was only one other town in the entire state that adopted it,” he said. “I told them we would never, ever support that change – but it’s their highway.”

Route 35, Ocean County. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

The plan would also include separate tinkering with the state highway, including possibility of making a large portion of it through Ortley Beach and Lavallette travel in both directions on both sides of the roadway. Under this proposal, what is now Route 35 North and Route 35 South would have two-way traffic. At some point – which was originally believed to have been Kerr Avenue in Lavallette, but now is thought to be a street farther north in Ocean Beach – the roads would re-align back to a divided highway, maintaining the traditional layout of two lanes in each direction, separated by a city block.

Finally, an aspect of the plan that has raised the ire of officials would see the highway’s speed limit permanently reduced to 25 m.p.h. While some elected officials over the years have, indeed, advocated for a lower speed limit than 35 m.p.h. in the summer season, the idea of forcing sparse traffic to move at just 25 m.p.h. in the dead of winter was lambasted by LaCicero.

“They were poking around in the dead of winter, talking to our chief, talking to Toms River’s chief about safety issues,” he said. “They said they were stunned there weren’t more pedestrians given the data they apparently had. I simply suggested they come back again on the Fourth of July.”

The same team from the state also questioned why the town changed speed limits on the highway seasonally – even though their own agency, not the borough, sends crews to make the changes in mid-fall when traffic declines.

While the bulk of the realignment proposal is generating backlash from local residents and officials – there were no speakers in favor of it at a council meeting last week when it was announced – some aspects of the wider safety proposals drew the endorsement of local officials. One, for instance, is a plan to place a guardrail outside the Lavallette Elementary School property to reduce the risk of a vehicle impacting the building. Another would be the realignment of some of the northern lanes in Ortley Beach where the highway ultimately connects to the Thomas A. Mathis Bridge and serves as an outbound route for tourists heading to the Garden State Parkway.

” People are coming out of Seaside, and they see a sign for the bridge and have to cross over three lanes,” LaCicero said. “There could be something worthwhile to do there.”

A “Do Not Enter” sign on Route 35 north, facing in the southward direction to deter wrong-way drivers. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

The mayor said he also suggested a plan to remove handicap ramps that were installed at the time of the post-Sandy reconstruction and replace them with traditional ramps that are accessible for wheelchairs but more smooth for pedestrians. He said trip-and-fall injuries have been spurred by the bumpy surfaces that the – at the time – newly-styled ramps included.

“I did suggest that the handicap ramps on the corners be eliminated, because they are a trip hazard and we’ve had several people injured,” he said. “We asked them to do a standard ramp in both directions, but at the time they said this was a coming trend, and they did it anyway.”

A separate – but related – plan would also see the reconfiguration of the southbound entrance lanes of the Stanley E. Tunney Bridge to the island near Seaside Park. That plan is aimed at removing portions of the “curve” coming onto the island, improving sight lines and better managing traffic.

The meeting on the highway reconfiguration and improvements will be held July 13, 2026 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Lavallette borough hall, 1306 Grand Central Avenue (Route 35 North), on the second floor.