Bowling Green’s busy Cave Mill Road area is about to get busier.

The Cave Mill II limited liability corporation headed by Owensboro builder Tommy Thompson received approval Thursday from the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County for a zoning change that could soon lead to development of 188 more apartments next door to the existing Cave Mill Apartments that Thompson developed.

Rezoning of the 11.24-acre tract on Cave Mill Station Boulevard from highway business to multi-family residential must still await final approval from the Bowling Green City Commission, but property owner James Cook indicated that work on the development could start shortly after Christmas.

The development plan calls for a complex similar to the existing 223-unit Cave Mill Apartments, with all buildings constructed totally of brick or other cementitious materials.

Cook said the apartments will range from one to three bedrooms, and he said the development will include a pool, clubhouse, dog park and other amenities.

Cave Mill Apartments, built in 2012, has the same range of apartment sizes, with monthly rents ranging from $665 to $1,015.

Cook said the area is still ripe for more apartments.

“That area has been a good one, and it has plenty of amenities nearby,” he said. “This is still a decent market for apartments.”

The apartment development could soon have some company in the form of a commercial development on a smaller tract owned by Cook that is near the Dollar General store on Cave Mill Road.

Spence Sheldon, the local franchisee for Donato’s Pizza on Fairview Avenue, revealed Thursday that he has plans to put a second Donato’s in a development next to the Dollar General that will include a total of four commercial tenants.

“It sort of happened organically,” Sheldon said of the plan for a second Donato’s. “We were getting a lot of calls for delivery in that area. That location will be more of a pickup and delivery site.”

In the only other item on Thursday’s agenda, the planning commission voted to table a rezoning application that could lead to development of a BP gas station in Alvaton.

Bipin Patel, who developed the AM Express convenience store on Three Springs Road and a BP station in Portland, Tenn., applied to rezone 0.7 acres at Alvaton Road and Mount Lebanon Road from agriculture to general business in order to build the gas station.

Planning commission members raised questions about the building orientation in relation to Scottsville Road, parking and signage and asked that Patel come back to the Nov. 7 meeting with more detailed architectural drawings.