Lacey Township is a township in Ocean County, New Jersey and is considered part of the Jersey Shore and South Jersey regions. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township’s population was 27,644, reflecting an increase of 2,298 (+9.1%) from the 25,346 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 3,205 (+14.5%) from the 22,141 counted in the 1990 Census. The 2010 population was the highest recorded in any decennial census. It was named for Continental Army General John Lacey.

Lacey Township was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 23, 1871, from portions of Dover Township (now known as Toms River Township) and Union Township (now Barnegat Township). Portions of the township were taken on June 23, 1933, to form the borough of Island Beach (which is now Island Beach State Park, part of Berkeley Township). The township was named for Revolutionary War brigadier general John Lacey, who developed Ferrago Forge in 1809.

The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station is located in the southern part of the township. The single-unit 636 MWe boiling water reactor power plant adjoins the Oyster Creek and is owned and operated by Exelon Corporation. It produced 9% of the state’s electricity and is the nation’s oldest operating nuclear power plant, having first been brought online on December 1, 1969, and is licensed to operate until April 9, 2029. In 2010, Exelon announced that it would close the facility in 2019 as part of an agreement with the State of New Jersey under which the plant would be allowed to operate without cooling towers. The plant, which had contributed a third of the township’s budget through taxes, was closed in September 2018, after which a decommissioning process estimated to take eight years and cost $1.4 billion was to be undertaken.

Murray Grove is a Unitarian-Universalist retreat and conference center in Lanoka Harbor, traditionally considered the site where Universalism in America began.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 98.530 square miles (255.191 km²), including 83.256 square miles (215.631 km²) of land and 15.274 square miles (39.560 km²) of water (15.50%).

Forked River (with a 2010 Census population of 5,244) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Lacey Township. Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Aserdaten, Bamber Lake, Barnegat Pines, Batuber, Cedar Creek, Cedar Crest, Deer Head Lake, Good Luck, Lake Barnegat, Lanoka Harbor, Osteam, Red Oak Grove, Union Clay Works and Webbs Mill. The township’s fire stations are named after the various areas of Lacey Township.

The township borders the Ocean County municipalities of Barnegat Township, Berkeley Township, Manchester Township and Ocean Township, as well as Woodland Township in Burlington County.

The north-south track of the Garden State Parkway serves as an informal use divider under the 1979 Pinelands Act and the subsequent Comprehensive Management Plan. To the east of the Parkway are more than 95% of Lacey’s residential dwellings, located in the unincorporated areas of Lanoka Harbor and Forked River. To the Parkway’s west is a mostly undisturbed pine and cedar forest, part of New Jersey’s vast Pine Barrens. The forest is interspersed with a scattered few farms, houses and ranches, the tiny community of Bamber Lakes and open pit gravel quarries – all of which predate passage of the Pinelands Act or were developed under its tight zoning rules. The conditions of grandfathering vary – the mines’ exceptions are to expire upon the deaths of their owners whereas the farms’ exceptions are indefinite. Development west of the parkway, covering two-thirds of the township’s area, is strictly controlled by the New Jersey Pinelands Commission.

Some Ocean County residents refer to all of Lacey Township as Forked River with the first word pronounced with two syllables (FOR-kid or FORK-id). Pronouncing the first word with one syllable is a sign of a non-native.

In a 2015 NJ.com poll with 91,000 respondents, Lacey Township was voted as part of South Jersey. According to the poll results, Lacey Township is South Jersey’s northern-most Jersey Shore community.

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 27,644 people, 10,183 households, and 7,606.701 families residing in the township. The population density was 332.0 per square mile (128.2/km²). There were 11,573 housing units at an average density of 139.0 per square mile (53.7/km²). The racial makeup of the township was 96.15% (26,581) White, 0.60% (167) Black or African American, 0.14% (38) Native American, 0.80% (222) Asian, 0.02% (6) Pacific Islander, 1.14% (316) from other races, and 1.14% (314) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.74% (1,310) of the population.

Source: Wikipedia