Having welcomed countless waves of new homes to once-rural Johnston County, leaders are now looking to slow growth by tightening restrictions on new subdivisions in unincorporated areas.

Growth has been good for Johnston, county leaders say, but some think the deluge of dollars isn't covering the increased costs of schools and other services.

Building an average of one home on every two acres would strike a better balance, according to a committee of county commissioners and planning board members. The average density now for subdivisions is one home per acre, although current rules allow up to three homes per acre.

The recommendations come from a committee that has spent more than a year considering ways to control growth. The group stopped short of its original goal -- drafting a master plan similar to those in other Triangle counties to guide where homes and businesses can be built.

The two-acre average matches the most restrictive of Wake County's nine residential zones.

"I think that this will keep the quality of life in our county that our citizens want," said Allen Mims, a commissioner who was on the growth management committee. "There is no magic wand."

Johnston County's population, which was 80,000 in 1990, is likely to reach 160,000 people by 2010, according to Demographics Now. Long-term estimates predict 750,000 people will one day live in the county even under the more restrictive suggestions.

According to the local home builders association, their industry brought enough jobs and wages to the county to generate $15 million in local tax revenue.

But public school officials say they will need $235 million to keep up with growth in the next six years. Johnston Community College needs $70 million in the next five years, and a study of local recreation leagues estimates those needs at $33 million over the next 10 years.

Covering those costs would require the county to take on more debt than it can afford, committee members said.

The proposed change in density would limit the number of newcomers.

Developers could build denser subdivisions if they could prove that enough schools, roads, recreational space and utilities are in place or in the works. In areas that lack those services, the changes would give county leaders more leverage in persuading developers to donate land for public use.

David Godschalk, a planning professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, said pushing developers to pay for schools and roads is increasingly common nationwide. Florida, for instance, will no longer issue construction permits until the infrastructure to support the homes is in place or coming.

Orange County's adequate facilities requirement for new subdivisions has slowed growth and kept schools from overcrowding.

But Don Johnson, a member of the Home Builders Association of Johnston County, said it has also increased home prices there.

"Who's going to pay for the land a developer gives to a school or doesn't build on?" asked Johnson, who directs the small business center at Johnston Community College. "That cost is going to be passed on to the consumer."

Sonny Johnson, co-owner of Son-Lan Development, said the changes aren't likely to hurt his company's bottom line because home builders will go wherever they can make a profit -- even if that means moving some business out of Johnston.

He said tighter restrictions are more likely to hurt individuals like his father who managed to keep the family farm through the Depression and hopes to make a profit from selling it.

But the proposed changes reflect a growing realization among county leaders that many of their constituents -- once thankful for any bit of growth -- no longer credit the home building industry with saving the county from financial ruin after tobacco and manufacturing industries failed.

"How are we getting ahead?" Vicky Martin of Pine Level asked recently in a letter to a local newspaper. "We want to grow, but we should want to grow at a pace we can handle."

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