The City-County Planning Commission of Warren County cleared the way for further development at The Medical Center campus.

The commission approved Thursday a request by the Bowling Green-Warren County Community Hospital Corp., dba The Medical Center, to rezone 2.1 acres of land along U.S. 31-W By-Pass from highway business and public district to highway business.

Formerly the site of the Topper Motel, the now empty land would be developed into medical office space by CHC.

Gaines Penn, CHC’s representative at Thursday’s planning commission meeting, said the land would be contracted to a third party that would develop the property.

The undeveloped land immediately behind the former motel site adjacent to The Medical Center is unlikely to be developed because of being situated in a basin, Penn said. The Bowling Green City Commission must now approve the planning commission’s recommendation for the rezoning to proceed.

Also Thursday, the planning board approved a rezoning request by Lucky Seven LLC to change the designation of four lots totaling 3.69 acres along Fairview Avenue between Riverwood and Fairmont avenues from townhouse/multi-family residential, highway business and general business to office professional/commercial and highway business.

Lynn Davenport of Lucky Seven said that the mostly undeveloped property would be the site of an insurance agency at the corner of Fairview and Riverwood avenues, with conceptual layouts showing five commercial businesses along the back of the development off Riverwood Avenue.

A few Riverwood Avenue residents shared their concerns about the development with the planning board, mainly involving worries that the development, which would have two access points off Riverwood, would have the effect of bringing excess traffic to their residential street.

Warren Bratcher, who lives on Riverwood Avenue, said the street already saw plenty of traffic from people driving to and from the nearby Kroger and Graves-Gilbert Clinic.

Davenport replied that with the land zoned as it is, it would be possible for a developer to build a retail business or an apartment complex that would snarl traffic even more and disrupt the neighborhood.

“We want to change the land to a zone that would reduce traffic,” Davenport said. “We don’t want to put up a cheap shopping center that would look tacky.”

In other business, the planning board:

• Approved a request by Joe and Angela Shultz to rezone an acre of land off Moats Lane from agriculture to residential estate, so that the couple can build a house on the property.

• Passed a detailed development plan application by Bowling Green Independent Schools for the new T.C. Cherry Elementary School, to be built on the site of the current one at 1001 Liberty Way.

• Approved a detailed development plan submitted by Marty Wilkins to change the existing office building at the intersection of Fairview and Meadowlawn avenues into condominium units.

The building houses American Bank & Trust, Allstate Insurance and Murphy, Napier & Co.