Hazlet Township is a Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 21,378. What is now Hazlet Township was originally incorporated as Raritan Township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 25, 1848, from portions of Middletown Township. Portions of the township were taken to form Holmdel Township (February 23, 1857), Matawan Township (also February 23, 1857, now Aberdeen Township), Keyport (March 17, 1870), Keansburg (March 26, 1917) and Union Beach (March 16, 1925). The township was renamed Hazlet Township as of November 28, 1967, based on the results of a referendum held on November 7, 1967. Hazlet derived its name from a Dr. John Hazlett who had an estate in Raritan Township near the Keyport-Holmdel Turnpike, now Holmdel Road. Hazlet is part of the Bayshore Regional Strategic Plan, an effort by nine municipalities in northern Monmouth County to reinvigorate the area's economy by emphasizing the traditional downtowns, dense residential neighborhoods, maritime history, and the natural beauty of the Raritan Bayshore coastline.