HOLLY SPRINGS - Signs welcoming visitors to Holly Springs tout its status as the fastest growing municipality in North Carolina, but the key issue in the coming election is whether it's time for the town to catch its breath.

In 1990, the population of Holly Springs was less than 1,000. It's now about 20,000.

By 2020, the number of residents is expected to surge to 45,000.

That rapid expansion has been facilitated by a pro-growth Town Council that often votes unanimously to approve new development projects.

It is not unusual for several new neighborhoods to win approval in a single night. At least 6,000 additional homes already have been approved for construction in the coming years.

But at a recent meeting, 26-year council veteran Parrish "Ham" Womble made a motion asking the town's manager and attorney to research what it would take to impose a moratorium on residential development.

The request was voted down 3-2.

"Since when is it wrong to ask for information?" asked Womble in an interview. A retired Wake County sheriff's deputy, he is the only current board member who was born in Holly Springs.

"I was on the council when we started the growth here," Womble said. "Without me, some of these others on the board now wouldn't even be here."

Though only two of the council's five seats are up for election Nov. 6, the vote could shift the board's balance of power from those who want to keep growing full-bore to those who want to tap the brakes.

Womble is up for re-election. So is incumbent Peter Atwell, who voted to squelch Womble's request for information about a possible moratorium.

Three others are also running, with the top two vote-getters winning seats on the council.

Atwell and candidate Laurie Clowers are campaigning as a team. The pair won the endorsement of the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors.

"The No. 1 issue is growth, just like in every other town in Wake County," said Clowers, who has lived in Holly Springs since 1998. "One of the incumbents is suggesting we have a one-year moratorium on growth, and I think that is the wrong way to go. We need smart growth, but I think we're on the right track."

Mayor Dick Sears, who has raised eyebrows by working as a paid "community consultant" for the developer of a massive new residential project in Holly Springs, has signs supporting Atwell and Clowers in his yard.

The mayor, whose current term doesn't expire until 2009, stopped short of formally endorsing the pair, however.

"There are several qualified candidates," Sears said Friday. "I like to keep my personal support on a private basis."

Candidate Hugh Carpenter calls for "sustained, yet managed, growth" that fits into the town's long-range plans for expansion.

Womble is supporting the candidacy of Tim Sack, a former council member he described as a good friend.

Like Womble, Sack is quick to stress he isn't anti-growth and said in an interview that he thinks an outright ban on new residential development is unworkable.

But the number of homes being built can't be allowed to outpace the ability of the town's infrastructure to absorb the new residents, Sack said.

"Growth has always been good for Holly Springs," Sack said. "We need sustainable growth here, but we also need to catch up on our infrastructure -- the roads and our parks and recreation facilities."

Signs for Womble and Sack sit side by side in front of the Village Inspections auto garage in the town's tiny downtown, which is dominated by a huge new Town Hall and recently constructed library and cultural center.

"He's the lone old-schooler, the born-and-raised candidate," business owner Andrew Cox said of Womble. "He's been a little slow to put his foot on the brake, but I think he's starting to recognize that all this development is a double-edged sword. I know they're trying to build the tax base, but you can't just say 'yes' to everything."

Cox said he was concerned about the mayor getting a paycheck from Wakefield Development.

"Conflicts of interest are a big deal," Cox said. "If people don't care about it, they should."

Next door, at Village Salon, Ruth Rose was getting her hair cut and styled. She said she plans to vote for Womble and Sack.

Rose said Holly Springs was becoming too much like Gaithersburg, Md., the bustling Washington, D.C., suburb she left 12 years ago.

"I'm interested in slowing down the development," Rose said. "Too much residential and not enough roads. I'm starting to see some of the same stuff here that I saw up there."