A development that will include a new hotel received approval Thursday from the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County.

Paras BG, LLC plans to build a four-story, 52,000-square-foot Comfort Suites hotel at 3245 Ken Bale Boulevard near its intersection with Scottsville Road. Developers plan to open the hotel by next summer, said Mac Paragh, managing partner with Paras BG.

The company also plans to construct a retail building or restaurant next to the hotel that would measure about 6,000 square feet. Developers do not yet know what businesses would locate in the building; however, they are not planning to construct an Olive Garden restaurant, contrary to many rumors that the location would be the site for the eatery, Paragh said.

Commissioners approved the hotel development plan last year, but developers changed plans, moving the hotel from the south side of the property to the north side, prompting another review of the plan.

Commissioners also approved a zone change from agriculture and highway business to highway business on Mel Browning Street.

David Browning plans to construct a shopping center on the 1.6-acre site.

Browning said he hopes to start construction by this summer. Still, plans are preliminary and he is searching for businesses to fill the shopping center.

“I’m looking for tenants at this point,” he said.

An alley located off Seventh Avenue north of College Street will be closed after commissioners approved an application to block the alley.

Bowling Green SPE and the Warren County Downtown Economic Development Authority requested the alley be closed for development of block six of the TIF district.

Bowling Green SPE owns the property on all sides of the alley, and 10 agencies, including the Bowling Green Police Department and Bowling Green Fire Department, submitted letters supporting the alley closure.

Also, the alley was not as “well-defined” as other alley ways, said Mac Yowell, commission engineer.

Commissioners also approved an application for a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Smart Growth Implementation Assistance 2009 grant would send an EPA design team to Bowling Green to review planning and zoning procedures, including subdivision and street design.

The team would then suggest ways to make those policies better and more environmentally friendly.

It would “kind of grade our performance here in Bowling Green with the ultimate goal of building greener and smarter,” said Steve Hunter, planning commission executive director.

The planning staff is particularly interested in improving the process for neighborhood connectivity – connecting new developments to existing sites to improve traffic flow, a concept that has been heavily debated at planning and zoning commission meetings, Hunter said.

The grant could help officials develop a new, public process that would allow the community to better evaluate neighborhood connectivity.

“We don’t typically apply for grants,” Hunter said. “But there are no funds involved … we would be the lead agency here.”