FORT MILL TOWNSHIP--Fort Mill Township is the fastest growing part of York County and planners don't expect that to change anytime soon.

Fort Mill Township could contain around 45,000 to 50,000 people by 2025 - nearly doubling the 2000 U.S. Census count of 25,358.

How will all those people fit inside a land area sandwiched between the Catawba River and the state line? And what might the tax base look like?

Those are questions the proposed comprehensive plan hopes to answer.

Key in the planning process has been stopping urban sprawl and keeping green space. The committee put in mandates for more high-density developments that use less land, and they set high standards for all developers. They also threw in the idea of incentives for developers to build in or near cities, plus ways to lure more commercial development.

Developers could be asked to help pay for public facilities such as water and sewer lines or roads, or they could be told to set aside land for a school or a retail commercial area to help enrich the tax base.

"It is kind of helping the new growth pay for itself, so the money doesn't get put back on the people already there," said Jeff Updike, a member of the county's comprehensive plan steering committee.

Updike points out that some developers in Fort Mill Township already do this. Clear Springs Development, LLC, the developers of Baxter Village, are also creating a Town Center for Baxter Village containing retail and office business. The tenants pay higher property taxes than residents - one way to relieve residents' overall tax burden.

James Traynor, president of Clear Springs, said the comprehensive plan is a good idea for all developers.

"We like the idea of a comprehensive land plan because it lets you know the rules you are expected to play by," Traynor said.

Developers could get incentives to develop inside or very near cities such as Fort Mill, Rock Hill, York, Clover and Lake Wylie - leaving more of the county undeveloped.

But residential growth isn't the only thing county planners hope will be attracted to York County.

Skip Tuttle, a developer with The Tuttle Co./Coldwell Banker, sat on the steering committee that developed the proposed comprehensive plan. Tuttle said he believes the plan reflects a fair balance of residential and commercial growth leading up to 2025.

"One of the things we hope is that York County doesn't become a bedroom community to Charlotte," Tuttle said. "We worked hard to identify suitable tracts of land to be developed for industrial usage."

In Fort Mill a lot of that land would fall along the I-77 corridor, Updike said.

"Fort Mill is going to be a major growth area," said Eric Greenway, the county's planning and zoning director. "We think that growth will be high-quality growth with a high quality of life. We think it will improve the quality of life. You are going to have a healthier tax base, which is going to help the county deliver better services to the citizens in that area because you have more of a balance between residential and commercial industry."