Each morning, Damon Hearne drives to the Golden Corral in Mooresville and parks his car. At 6:20 a.m., he steps on to the Mooresville Express bus, and rides down Interstate 77 for an hour and 15 minutes into uptown Charlotte.

It's a long commute to his job at Bank of America, but one Hearne is willing to make to live near Lake Norman in an area with less traffic.

"There has been a steady progress of moving out toward Huntersville and Davidson and out toward here," Hearne said.

Hearne, 52, is one of 146,211 people who live outside Mecklenburg but commute in to work. He and the bus he rides exemplify life in the Charlotte area today: as the region's population explodes, problems more often cross municipal lines, and the need for cities and counties to work together is far greater.

Clogged roads don't stop at the city limits. A regional transit system can't happen without coordination throughout the area. And county borders don't keep out water and air pollution.

Progress on cooperating, though, has been slow.

Mecklenburg and Mooresville leaders would like to extend rail service to the growing Iredell County community. But Iredell commissioners don't want to adopt a tax to pay for it.

"I'm sure Charlotte wants it because they want to ship (workers) out at night so we'll have to build schools for them," said Iredell commissioners chairman Steve Johnson.

With more residents settling in towns such as Mooresville, though, leaders in the region worry that without proper planning the Charlotte area could end up looking more like Atlanta -- known for its sprawling development and heavy traffic.

"If we don't do things differently, we're in deep trouble," said Carl Gullick, executive director of Voices & Choices, a Charlotte-based group that promotes regional cooperation.

Observers say the region's bad air could spur cooperation: The Environmental Protection Agency is likely to declare the area a bad air zone in 2004, placing some of the $6 billion in federal transportation dollars targeted for the Charlotte area -- not to mention a reputation with potential business recruits -- at risk a year later.

"We can't build a wall high enough to protect our air," said Mary Hopper, chairwoman of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission.

Working together

Leaders in the Charlotte region -- which is home to more than 1.5 million residents -- are finding they can't succeed by themselves. Things they do to reduce traffic or influence development are undercut if neighboring towns and counties don't help.In Huntersville, Mayor Kim Phillips is confronting this problem first hand.

She worries that development in unincorporated areas of neighboring Cabarrus County will increase traffic on N.C. 73, which runs through her town.

"What they do affects how we live," Phillips said.

Some area leaders are considering a regional land-use plan that would help guide development in the Charlotte area. That could give a regional body some authority over local land-use decisions.

Weddington Mayor Ed Howie said he would be open to a regional land-use plan -- as long as each town holds final control over development decisions.

"We're probably 15 or 20 years behind the curve of even talking about a regional land-use plan," he said.

The Portland, Ore., and Minneapolis-St. Paul regions have established regional governments with significant authority. There, the agencies have power over a broad range of issues, including deciding how many homes can be built in an area.

Regional cooperation isn't just important for development.

The Carolina Panthers NFL team, for example, draws from all over the Carolinas. The North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center depends on the surrounding counties to fill roughly 30 percent of its seats.

Mooresville resident Frank Nash, one of Hearne's fellow riders, often travels to Charlotte for hits that played on Broadway. "Mooresville couldn't support a Broadway production," he said.

`Immediate needs first'

The obstacles, though, are great.

Other cities and counties have in the past resented Charlotte because of its size.

Residents and leaders fear the loss of their suburban community's identity. Each city and town wants to recruit the next business to add jobs and tax revenues.

"I work for York County. My responsibility is to recruit industry, first and foremost, to York County," said Mark Farris, director of economic development for York County, S.C. "You can never remove that inherent element of competition."

Beyond that, counties on the region's outer ring don't currently face some of the same problems as Charlotte and cities nearby, such as road congestion. That gives them less of a short-term incentive to help out.

"When you get elected by a local populace, you tend to address their immediate needs first," said Steve Blount, chairman of the Rowan County commissioners.

Throughout the Charlotte region, local governments worry about neighboring counties luring new development -- taking away tax revenue. The local cities and counties receive all the property-tax revenue.

But the Minneapolis-St. Paul area has taken a different approach. In a bid to promote regional cooperation, the Twin Cities area shares 40 percent of all new business tax growth across the region.

"Municipalities were spending all their economic energy stealing malls from each other and not enough economic energy thinking about how to bring in good jobs," said Myron Orfield, a former Minnesota state senator, who helped lead regional cooperation efforts in the Twin Cities region.

Local leaders, however, are reluctant to give up their power.

Cabarrus County commissioner Coy Privette said he couldn't support turning over land-use power to a regional authority.

"That," he said, "would be usurping the county's authority."

Federal prodding

Despite the challenges, towns and counties in the Charlotte region are taking steps to work together -- in part because of the threat of lost transportation dollars.

Under the standards to be enforced in 2005, the Charlotte region must develop steps to clean its air or risk losing part of its $6 billion in federal transportation money.

Regional leaders say poor air quality is forcing increased cooperation because it requires an ongoing effort.

Using an EPA grant, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County recently crafted possible solutions to air and water quality problems and offered "smart growth" suggestions.

They now hope to identify ways for the local governments to enact the ideas.

Air quality isn't the only potential source for regional cooperation. Among others:

• Economic development. Twelve years ago, business leaders helped form the Charlotte Regional Partnership, which helps attract new businesses to the area. The member counties have agreed to market the region as "Charlotte USA," and the agency has recently aired commercials on CNN.

"They understand that they're taking care of themselves," said Michael Almond, who heads the partnership, "by promoting their participation in the region."

• Planning. A Regional Planning Alliance is being organized to help promote more collaboration on land-use planning. The group, which is expected to start meeting in the fall, will include elected leaders and chief appointed officials from throughout the region.

• Transit service. Charlotte Area Transit System operates express bus service to Concord, Rock Hill, Gastonia, Mooresville and to Union County beginning in June. Each community shares the cost with CATS.

Residents can help encourage more cooperation, Gullick said, by pushing their local elected leaders and volunteering with regional groups.

And area leaders need to be open to working together, said Tom Cox, chairman of the Mecklenburg County commissioners.

"I think people ought to focus less on the autonomy they might lose," he said, "and more on the results we can achieve by working together."