The Gloucester County Board of Zoning Appeals approved a special exception Tuesday night that will allow the Gloucester Institute to reestablish the historic Moton Conference Center on Allmondsville Road near Cappahosic as a school and educational facility with a dormitory.

In granting the request, the BZA said that the construction must be completed within five years, with the first phase—a classroom facility—to be completed within 2½ years.

Also, the BZA set some landscaping requirements to provide better buffering to protect neighbors’ interests and set a 9 p.m. curfew for any planned outdoors activities at the campus, which Gloucester Institute representatives said served as a think tank for African Americans, was often used by civil rights groups and is said to be the place where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote at least part of his famous "I Have a Dream" speech about human equality.

Following a public hearing and discussion, member Clay...