Gloucester’s second business focus group, called Business Group 2.0 recently finished meeting and focused on ways to bring more people into the county to make the businesses here thrive. The first focus group developed ways for the county to revise its ordinances and regulations to make them more business-friendly.

Robert “JJ” Orth, Abingdon district’s representative on the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors, spearheaded the focus group idea. During his first term on the board, Orth said he knew right away Gloucester needed to be more mindful of business. This was also the time that the country was reeling from the 2008 recession.

According to Orth, some of the more cumbersome regulations that were imposed by the county were developed during a period when Gloucester was experiencing very rapid growth. “They probably adopted these ordinances when things were happening so fast,” he said.

One of the initial tasks accomplished by the first focus g...