Lowcountry leaders have already faced many issues that are coming to North Carolina's mainland coast. Here are five things they say they learned while trying to handle growth:

1 COLLECT AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE in impact fees or through contracts with developers to pay for roads, fire stations and utilities that newcomers require. In South Carolina, impact fees may not be levied for schools but may be for other infrastructure.

PROSPECTS HERE: Poor, unless there is a shift in the legislature. Impact fees for water and sewer service are legal, but the legislature allows only a handful of towns and counties to charge them for other needs. Such fees are opposed by the homebuilders' and real estate lobbies. Local governments in South Carolina can negotiate tougher contracts than in North Carolina.

2 GOT WATERFRONT? Protect the water quality, not only for environmental reasons, but also because it's the reason all these people want to live at the coast. As growth hit, Bluffton put tighter restrictions on private docks and on construction along the water.

PROSPECTS HERE: Mixed. The mainland coast boom is coming to nearly 20 counties and dozens of small towns and cities, and their regulations to control runoff vary in quality. State regulations allow dense development, and some rules are easily avoided.

3 ACT EARLY. Communities should try to envision what's coming. A handful of Bluffton residents prompted early planning and huge annexations to push commercial construction and high-density housing away from the historic town center.

PROSPECTS HERE: They vary by community. But it is rare, planning experts say, for local governments to take expensive or politically risky steps before growth starts to create problems that are obvious to residents. North Carolina, however, does allow stronger annexation powers than those in South Carolina.

4 GET THE STATE TO ACT QUICKLY on highway construction and have local governments move aggressively to improve their roads.

PROSPECTS HERE: Mixed. Local governments on the mainland coast aren't authorized to collect impact fees for roads, and their other sources of funding are limited. North Carolina spends more on highways, though, than its neighbor to the south.

5 USE GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION to protect traditional waterfront businesses. Beaufort County bought Bluffton Oyster Co. and now rents it to operators who couldn't keep it afloat without help. Otherwise, the last traditional oyster house in South Carolina would be gone.

PROSPECTS HERE: Uncertain. North Carolina's fish houses and crab processors are vanishing quickly. That problem is high on the priority list of a committee the legislature created this summer to study issues related to development and access to coastal waters.