FORT MILL TOWNSHIP--So just how do you manage growth?

The York County planning staff has an idea, and it's part of the proposed 2025 Comprehensive Plan being presented to the York County Council Wednesday.

The staff and a 28-member steering committee eyed three land-use scenarios for York County 21 years from now, trying to determine the best way to steer growth and manage the county's resources.

The first scenario showed what would happen to the county if growth were left unchecked.

"You would have had no boundaries between your urban and rural areas," said Jeff Updike, steering committee member and Tega Cay resident.

A second scenario showed what the county would look like if land were developed according to existing zoning.

The sprawling development leaves little green space, Updike said.

The third scenario allowed new growth just in the existing towns.

"We tended to like that, but it wasn't real feasible," Updike said. "Not everyone wants to live in the city."

So the committee put together a fourth growth scenario, mapping "urban service boundaries" - where cites are likely to run water and sewer lines, roads and city services. They figured that people and businesses generally follow new roads and infrastructure, so they could use those features carefully to steer future growth and prevent sprawl.

"That gives us a good boundary at where growth would go," Updike said.

But the steering has to be done with a light hand.

"You don't want to tell people what they can and can't do with their land," Updike said. "You can provide incentives to build where citizens want you to build. This is a citizen-driven plan. We as citizens want development to go in certain areas. We don't want to pay the additional tax burden it would cost us to pay for development to go where it's not warranted."

The proposed comprehensive plan doesn't prevent developers from going outside these "urban service boundaries," it just makes it more difficult. And there are incentives to keep developers inside those boundaries.

"I think it benefits everyone as far as maintaining a healthy tax base," said Eric Greenway, the county's planning and zoning director. "It helps the larger landowner because they will have more options coming out of this plan than in the old plan."

But the details have yet to be worked out.

If the comprehensive plan is adopted in its current form by the York County Council, new ordinances have to be set to put the plan into action. For example, the county would have to craft an "adequate public services" ordinance that prevents developers from building on land without adequate infrastructure, or forces them to help pay for that new infrastructure.

"The adequate public facilities ordinance will set the threshold for how much capacity is left in a school system, transportation system, or water/sewer system to support the growth occurring in that area," Greenway said. "If a developer comes in and will have a negative impact on the facilities, we would tell the developer he can't build that subdivision until we have that capacity in the ground, or [he] can go ahead and help out with the cost of putting that capacity in the ground.

"There is going to be a lot of accountability in this plan, from a county standpoint and a developer's standpoint."

Sizing up the problem

Steering committee members compiled a list of strengths, weaknesses, future opportunities and future threats before they started work on a new comprehensive plan: Strengths • Schools and a skilled work force • Open space and natural resources • Access and location to I-77, a major airport and Charlotte Weaknesses • Sprawl and excessive residential growth • Congested roads and lack of public transportation • Lack of coordinated county water/sewer system • Poor planning and coordination among governments • Damage to air and water qualityFuture opportunities • Sustainable and managed growth • Protected parks and open space • Quality of lifeFuture threats • Loss of community identity and quality of life • Excessive traffic congestion • Overcrowded schools • Inadequate tax base • Loss of open space along with environmental damage See the maps of the growth scenarios for the entire county and read the committee's vision statement on our Web site, www.fortmilltimes.com.