JERSEY CITY — The Fulop administration will ask the City Council next week to approve repealing the city’s restrictions on Downtown chain stores, weeks after a Jersey City property owner filed a federal lawsuit alleging the chain store limits are “blatantly illegal.”

This will be the second time Mayor Steve Fulop has asked the council to overturn the law he asked them to pass in 2015, a law that places limits on where chain stores can open Downtown. The council voted overwhelmingly in 2017 to buck the mayor and keep the restrictions in place.

Back then, the city told council members the chain store limits might not hold up under the scrutiny of federal laws.

Council President Rolando Lavarro declined to comment. He voted against repealing the restrictions two years ago. Councilman James Solomon, who represents Downtown, also declined to offer his position on the potential repeal, saying he will wait to hear the city’s argument that the law is unconstitutional.

The law bans chain stores from taking up more than 30 percent of ground-floor commercial space in Downtown redevelopment zones. The boundaries are unusual: on Newark Avenue, one side of the street can have chain stores and the other side must adhere to the restrictions. Large swaths of the waterfront are exempt, including properties owned by LeFrak and Mack-Cali.

Fulop pitched the law as one that would protect “mom and pop” stores. His critics said it was a bald attempt at winning favor with suburban voters in areas like Millburn and South Orange who say they prefer local shops to corporate chains, voters Fulop was courting in 2015 as he mulled a run for governor.

On April 5, developer Alfonso Carrino, who owns 8 Erie St., sued the city in federal court, alleging the chain store restrictions violate the commerce and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution, state zoning laws, the doctrine of fundamental fairness and more. Carrino also claims the law was enacted solely to help Fulop’s gubernatorial campaign.

The limits on chain stores have kept Carrino from attracting national corporate businesses from opening in his retail spaces, the lawsuit says. The building at 8 Erie St. includes the restaurant Talde and another space that has struggled to retain a tenant.

The council meets on Wednesday, April 24 at 6 p.m.

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