WENDELL - This town's downtown has its charm, but it's pockmarked with empty storefronts, and the half-dozen or so eateries in town don't have much in the way of offerings beyond the lunch hour.

The vacant storefronts and lack of retail shops have many residents of the eastern Wake County town worried.

Planned development will more than double the town's population. But residents speak with jealousy when talking about neighboring Knightdale and Zebulon, which have seen similar rates of residential growth, but with more accompanying businesses coming in as well.

Residents don't want to be just a bedroom community. They want bustling new businesses -- shops, cafes and stores in the town's old commercial heart.

"Everybody is growing except Wendell," said Elizabeth Henry, 91, who owns an antiques shop on Main Street. The lifelong Wendell resident wonders why the small-town charm of Wendell hasn't attracted more businesses.

"I hope we get some new blood," she said of the Nov. 6 election. "They might not do anything, but at least it'll be a try."

Five people, with only one incumbent among them, are vying for two at-large commissioner seats. And the mayoral race is wide open, with the current mayor Timothy A. Hinnant stepping down and three men hoping to take his place.

How to grow is the town's central issue. The population has doubled in recent years to nearly 5,000 and is expected to more than double with the completion of Wendell Falls, a development a mile north of downtown that will open in late 2008 with 4,000 housing units, stores, outdoor spaces and a school.

Mayoral candidate Charlie "Buddy" Scarboro Jr., a retired Raleigh firefighter, said he has been happy with the way Wendell has handled its growth thus far and wants to try to attract more businesses to offset taxes.

"We're headed in the right direction," he said.

Scarboro's opponent J. Harold Broadwell, a lawyer, said he hopes to bring a more professional atmosphere to town government and would like to see an investment in downtown Wendell similar to what has happened in Raleigh.

"I've been concerned that Wendell has not had a focus on how it should grow or where it wanted to grow," he said. "It's important for the town to have focus and to retain its sense of community."

The third mayoral candidate, Carl Joseph Schwenk Jr., who entered the race after learning he could not keep a horse in the yard of the home he owns, did not return a reporter's phone calls.

Commissioner candidate James Wallace Parham, a retired educator, said he looks more favorably at slow-growth plans.

"We do need continuous growth, but we do not need an explosion," Parham said.

An informal ticket of candidates has formed, with signs for Broadwell and commission candidates Sid Baynes and Carol Hinnant clustered together. Hinnant, the only incumbent and the sister-in-law of the outgoing mayor, said she's excited about growth but added that she wants "to preserve this small-town uniqueness."

Baynes said he's worried that Wendell will be bypassed if town government doesn't create long-term goals for the area's growth.

"We're a lot closer to Raleigh than we used to be," he said, referring to the U.S. 64/264 Bypass. "Our town just did not have the vision to get ready for it."

Bob Sams said he's concerned that town leaders will turn their backs on working-class families by reducing subsidized housing.

"That, to me, sounds very exclusive, and it sounds like code words for other things," he said.

Candidate Ricky Andrews did not return a reporter's phone calls.