Stand there a minute and you can almost hear the future rumbling closer.

As Election Day nears, the Wake County town of 30,000 worries that development will drown out its quiet charm. In the next decade, those woods might be replaced by Trinity, Apex's largest-ever project that could bring 4,000 homes.

Mayor Keith Weatherly and Town Council members Bill Jensen and Bryan Gossage face no opposition in November, and all three call themselves slow-growth candidates.

They bring their caution back to Town Hall in November, knowing that residents are watching Apex's progress with a wary eye.

Ask Bill Prince, 78, who lives in Trinity's path. On some mornings, he waits 15 minutes to cross Old Holly Springs-Apex Road to fetch his newspaper.

"We're for progress," he said, "but we're getting too much, too fast."

Weatherly said Apex has aimed for a conservative growth rate of 4 percent a year, adding closer to 3 percent or roughly 1,000 people.

He reminds voters that Apex approved no residential projects between 1998 and 2002.

"I think we've done a great job," said Weatherly; he will start a fourth term. "A 4 percent growth rate in a town of 30,000 isn't like a 4 percent growth rate in Raleigh, where it means thousands of people."

The Trinity project lacks final approval, Weatherly said, and he doubts Apex will allow 4,000 homes there.

Still, Gossage notes that the project's proposal calls for 20-story buildings in southern Apex and thousands of homes, which prompted him to vote "No" on preliminary plans.

"It's too much," he said. "I really think we need to keep a healthy but moderate approach to growth."

The Apex Council will start a new term as the town runs low on sewer capacity. Getting permits for more could take years.

Police and fire stations also need more space, and the town is considering a 3-cent increase on the property tax rate to cover it.

Traffic on N.C. 55 grows more intolerable for residents, who await a new leg of Interstate 540 to help steer commuters from town.

Meanwhile, downtown Apex thrives with all but one storefront occupied on Salem Street. An ice cream shop. A soda shop. The Pineapple Tea Room.

"All this growth is good for business," said Greg Stephenson, an Apex native who owns Antiques on Salem Street. "But I just don't want them to make any mistakes. There's beginning to be a lot of townhomes and condos, and I don't want to see too many of those."

A few blocks away, a field where tobacco recently grew will soon become the Villages at Apex. The development will feature about 1,100 homes surrounded by shops, restaurants and offices -- all walkable, planners hope.

Candidates describe the project as a positive new piece. Jensen, who is seeking a third term and calls himself the slowest of the slow-growth candidates, backed it despite his misgivings about density.

"They will have the Apex Peakway go through there, and the developer is paying for part of it," he said. "They do have a park in there. They do have some work-live buildings. There's some offices with living quarters."

But all agree the real flashpoint is the town's south end.

It will take a decade for the Trinity project to unfold, Weatherly said, so it's not as though the forest will become Triangle Town Center (a large North Raleigh shopping center) overnight.

Prince, who has lived at the project's edge since 1950, has mixed feelings.

He and his wife will leave their 32 acres -- probably in a year. At their age, he said, they don't care much about where they go next.

But they won't be able to help looking over their shoulder and remembering Apex when its population was 500.

Then, they knew everyone in town.