No More Nail Salons? Not Yet

When it comes to scheduling a manicure and pedicure, there's no shortage of places to choose from in Fanwood: one nail salon on Martine Avenue, two on South Avenue, and a fourth on the way on South.

Last week, Mayor Colleen Mahr and the Borough Council discussed an ordinance that would prohibit any more nail salons from opening in and around Fanwood's downtown district. That measure, however, provoked a level of opposition from business owners and residents that appeared to catch Mahr and council members by surprise. This week, at Tuesday night's regular meeting of the Mayor and Borough Council, Mahr and council members tabled a vote on the ordinance to, as they described, allow them further time to consider the measure and its implications.

"This discussion's not necessarily a new one," Mahr said. "But the more that I spoke to people about this, the more I wanted to take time to consider it. I really want to think about this limit holistically."

Already, any landlord in and around the downtown district who wishes to rent property to a business must receive approval from the Fanwood Planning Board, borough attorney Dennis Estis said in a telephone interview. This new ordinance would amend borough land-use ordinances to prohibit the Planning Board from approving any application for a nail salon that would be located on Martine Avenue, between South Avenue and LaGrande Avenue, or on South Avenue, between First Street and Second Street. The salons that already exist would be "grandfathered in," and could therefore continue operating.

"Every town in the state of New Jersey has ordinances just like this," Estis said. "The town should and does have the right to say, 'Enough.'"

The ordinance, Mahr said, "came out of the initial concerns that we heard from residents and property owners." Specifically, the owners of nail salons.

"Business is more than 60 percent down," said Yi Hyang, 47, who has owned of  on Martine Avenue for more than 20 years. "I had seven, eight people working five or six days a week. Now, I have four people, but they work three days a week."

Andy Song, 49, the owner of  on South Avenue, said that his business, which opened in 2008, has not been noticeably affected by the other nail salons. But he added, "People are going to close, because everybody's going for the lowest price. There's no profit. They have to pay for payroll, for taxes, for rent. We need protection from other salons."  

Borough landlords, however, expressed concern about the measure. "It's not that we have too many nail salons, it's that we don't have enough combination of stores," said Helen Ling, who has owned  on South Avenue for more than 20 years, and owns half of the three-story, Victorian-style commercial building across the street from the Fanwood Train Station. "We should have an effort to recruit different varieties of stores. If we had other stores, this would not become the problem."

Rather than limiting one particular type of business, she argued, the borough should focus on recruiting and offering incentives to businesses that would fill and diversify the district.

Ronnie Marcovecchio, 66, the owner of  on South Avenue for 40 years, and the owner the other half of the Victorian-style South Avenue property, was more blunt. "Will the town pay my rent if I'm looking for a new tenant, and I can't take someone who wants to open a nail salon?" he asked as he trimmed the hair of customer Larry Jansen, 63.

Jansen, who said he has lived in Fanwood for more than 32 years, offered an answer. "If you had one vacancy and waiting lists for that spot, I could see why you would want to dictate which store could go there. But when you have multiple idle business spots available for over a year now, it's absurd. You got to take what you can get, to a degree."

Estis expressed surprise and frustration at the outcry. "It boggles my mind that this is even an issue," he said. "They've done this in every municipality since the Planning Act of 1953."

Estis and Mahr emphasized that the ordinance would not institute a town-wide ban on nail salons – they pointed-out that salons could be opened in the light-industrial area on South Avenue near Terrill Road – but would instead limit salons in a "particular, specific area."

Landlords' frustration, however, partly stemmed from an apparent lack of communication between businesses and Borough Hall. Ling, Marcovecchio and Peter Chemidlin, head of the Fanwood Business and Professional Association, said that the ordinance had caught them by surprise.

"I first read about it in the newspaper," Chemidlin said in a telephone interview. "You're kind of troubled when you hear they're going to dictate which type of business is in town. We need to sit down and make sure we have open communication between the council and borough businesses."

At the council meeting Tuesday night, Mahr and council members pledged to better communicate with borough's business community. They also discussed the creation of a council liaison position to businesses in the downtown district, a role for which Councilman Mike Szuch volunteered.

Mahr acknowledged that the ordinance's particular focus on nail salons was influenced by the outcry from current salon owners – concerns perhaps fueled by a "Nail Salon Coming Soon" sign in the window of the corner property at South Avenue and Second Street. She allowed that if business owners or residents had complained about the number of dry-cleaning stores in town – of which there are three in the downtown district, and four total in Fanwood –  those, too, "could've been" the subject of an ordinance.

Mahr said that the council will likely first discuss the measure in a closed, workshop-style session, then continue discussions during public meetings next year. "The last thing we want to do is not be business-friendly," she said.