JERSEY CITY — Four-year-old restrictions on where chain stores can open in Downtown Jersey City are set for repeal at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

This is the second time Mayor Steve Fulop’s administration has asked the council to get rid of the chain store limits, which Fulop pushed them to adopt in 2015. The new repeal attempt came soon after a Downtown property owner hauled the city into court and alleged the restrictions are unconstitutional.

The measure up for final adoption would repeal the two 2015 ordinances that led to the restrictions, which ban chain stores from taking up more than 30 percent of ground-floor commercial space in Downtown redevelopment zones.

City officials who spoke about the repeal plan at the council’s April 22 caucus said they could not speak in great detail because of the lawsuit. Business Administrator Brian Platt told council members that “there are definitely some vulnerabilities in the ordinances.”

At the time the restrictions were approved, Fulop said they would protect the small businesses that give Downtown Jersey City its character.

Councilman James Solomon, who represents Downtown, said he’s in favor of repeal because when the city wrote the restrictions it failed to follow guidelines required to ensure they could withstand a legal challenge.

“I'm not interested in wasting taxpayer money on a lawsuit we are guaranteed to lose,” Solomon told The Jersey Journal. “I will reach out to community leaders to gauge their interest in rewriting the law in a legally defensible way.”

The 2017 repeal attempt failed when Solomon’s predecessor, Candice Osborne, lobbied council members to keep the restrictions in place.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.