Restraining order denied to block Camden business curfew

Camden activist Frank Fulbrook pulled out a measuring tape Tuesday afternoon to determine the distance between a 24-hour downtown restaurant and the closest residential zone.

It was a last-minute attempt to prevent Broadway Food Court from having to close at 11 p.m. under a business curfew adopted last month by Camden City Council, an effort to curb crime near the city's late-night takeout food shops.

The curfew was supposed to take effect Monday, but Fulbrook on Friday filed a lawsuit and sought a temporary restraining order to stop the curfew. On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge said no.

Following the hearing, Fulbrook determined that Broadway Food Court might still be able to avoid the curfew because it is more than the required 200 feet - 527 feet, he claimed - from the nearest residential zone at Fifth and Stevens Streets.

City officials are meeting this week to discuss the curfew implementation, spokesman Robert Corrales said. "We want to be fair to the businesses and give them fair notice of the change," he said.

Corrales said Tuesday evening that he did not have a zoning map in front of him to comment on whether Broadway Food Court fell outside the 200-feet rule.

Fulbrook, along with three business owners, filed a lawsuit arguing that the curfew would cause irreparable harm for the takeout store owners, some of whom claim that 30 percent of their sales are conducted after 11 p.m.

Camden has tried to establish business curfews, but pulled back or lost legal challenges from Fulbrook in 1998 and 2006.

Superior Court Judge Francis J. Orlando Jr., who presided over the previous two lawsuits, again is assigned to the business curfew case.

Confident from Orlando's prior rulings, Fulbrook asked for the temporary restraining order on the curfew until the lawsuit is finalized in court. But Orlando sided with the city, saying a report by the Camden Police Department showed crime increasing between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and other correlations between crime and businesses staying open late.

"The small business owners should have done more homework," said John Calzaretto, who is representing Fulbrook and the three businesses named in as plaintiffs in the lawsuit: Broadway Food Court, Super Crown Fried Chicken, and Great Wall. "They aren't well-organized."

Fulbrook has used a door-to-door campaign to let business owners know about the ordinance. If it wasn't for Fulbrook, Calzaretto said, there probably would not be a lawsuit.

Fulbrook, who lives in the Cooper Grant neighborhood and rents to Rutgers-Camden students, says his fight is for "economic freedom."

He also said it's unfair for the city to use the "200 feet from residential zone" rule because of Camden's density: 79,000 residents within nine square miles. Most businesses would fall under that rule, he said.

"It's an old city. Everyone had a corner store," Calzaretto said.

The curfew does not apply to pharmacies or businesses holding liquor licenses or selling fuel. However, gas station mini-marts within 200 feet of residential zones would have to close.

The Police Department, at a Council caucus, made its case that drug activity and nuisance complaints are frequent at late-night establishments.

Similar rules have been established in other New Jersey municipalities, including Newark, Jersey City, and Collingswood.

Support for the ordinance has been divided during Council hearings, which started with the first draft in February and ended when Council approved the ordinance Aug. 9. Only a handful of business owners have spoken.

Liaqat Ali of Broadway Food Court, at Broadway and Mickle Boulevard, and Iqbal Ahmad of Super Crown Fried Chicken, at Kaighns and Haddon Avenues, accompanied Fulbrook to Tuesday's hearing.

Orlando said his decision was "not set in stone" and asked that the plaintiffs gather more concrete evidence. He also promised to expedite a pretrial conference.

"Either side could have irreparable harm," Orlando said, elaborating that businesses would see a loss of revenue but the quality of life and safety of residents was at stake.

Part of the Police Department's presentation advocating for the business curfew showed surveillance pictures of a drug deal outside of a late-night takeout store.

Ali has said that his customers "might be coming for other reasons . . . but they still buy" food. Whenever there are loud altercations outside his establishment, he said, calls the police.

"We have to prove that their basis used is not rational," Calzaretto said, referring to the city's attempt to close businesses early to curb crime.