The Gloucester County Planning Commission, at its July 5 meeting in the colonial courthouse, gave its unanimous approval to a zoning request that would pave the way for residential development at Gloucester Point.

The commission received an application by Southern Bank and Trust Company (owner) and Reese Smith Associates (contract purchaser) to amend the Gloucester County Zoning map to reclassify 11.09 acres. The property is located on the west side of Route 17, directly across from the Gloucester Point Shopping Center.

The principal purposes of the application were to remove the 55-or-older age restriction contained in the previous rezoning application approved by the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors in January 2005, a county notice said, and to allow for the construction of duplexes rather than condominiums on the property, which is zoned multifamily.

The applicant also said that the roads serving the complex would be built to state standards and that a sewage pump stat...