JoAnna DiPastena and her husband moved to York County, S.C., from Charlotte two years ago to get away from the city's traffic and congestion.

"I was feeling really squeezed," said DiPastena, 56.

Then, it all followed her.

Her Palmetto Plantation subdivision near Tega Cay quickly became surrounded with more development. What was once a field of grass and trees, has become a crop of rooftops.

"I felt betrayed," she said.

Lured by low crime, cheaper housing and fewer taxes, thousands have raced to the countryside south of the Charlotte metropolitan area for a better quality of life. With those people comes more houses and the building continues to move westward past Fort Mill into Clover and reaching York.

Just last week, federal regulators announced that cities in the eastern part of the county are part of an area with unhealthy rates of ground-level ozone, or smog, caused by vehicle emissions.

County leaders say it's time to control the juggernaut. After two years of work, the York County Council and staff plan to introduce the public to an aggressive land-use plan that directs the masses to a specific area of the county and protects other rural areas. Community meetings will be held in the coming months as the county tries to sell its plan.

"If we continue to have the bedroom community subdivision growth that we've had, we won't have any land left for businesses to create jobs," said John Fernsler Jr., principal of WRT Planning & Design, the Florida firm contracted by the county to create the plan.

The problem is simple, though overwhelming: As more people move to the country and buy homes on large lots, the county's services become stretched. County planners predict that in the next 20 years, nearly 108,000 people will move here, up 62 percent from the current population of 173,000.

If housing development standards remain the same, the newcomers could consume 71,997 acres, county planners said, providing an example of subdivisions that allow one-acre lots for each house. But if the masses change their building and buying habits, that could be cut to 14,400 acres.

The multipronged plan draws a boundary around the eastern part of the county and asks new high-density housing to stay largely within those limits. Developers wouldn't be allowed to build in an area where the schools or county services would be overwhelmed. And developers will be asked to consider subdivision plans with smaller lot sizes and more open space.

After listening to a presentation about the plan last week, County Council member Perry Johnston applauded the idea of "compact growth." Then, looking across the table at other council members, he shook his head, saying "We've got to move from a zoning mentality to a planning mentality ... we're going to have to be prepared to answer the hard-line questions."

The leaders are bracing themselves for some unhappy land and business owners. Already, county leaders have struggled with a decision on whether to change zoning on land so a convenience store could be built.

York County Planner Eric Greenway said, that although there will be some who complain, the long term 20-year plan can save thousands of acres, providing more fresh air and less congestion.

The plan follows many of the principles of open-space guru Randall Arendt, a Rhode Island-based consultant who has written numerous books, including "Rural by Design."

In Chatham County near Chapel Hill, leaders implemented some of the open-space concepts three years ago in an effort to protect the largely rural county.

Today, there are no more strip malls under construction and the roads are passable, but the market still pushes for more development in areas that leaders had hoped to protect, said Keith Megginson, planning director for Chatham County.

"It hasn't been that successful as far as controlling growth," Megginson said. "The market controls that."

David Vipperman, chairman of the steering committee that worked on York's plan, warned County Council members that the plan would be destroyed if they didn't stand firm during future council zoning decisions.

And he emphasized that the plan will be a work in progress -- calling it a "living, breathing document."

Meantime, DiPastena said she realizes that her home is in the very kind of subdivision she complains is adding to sprawl. But, she said, there are very few options for people wanting to move away from the city. And she also pointed out the home had been lived in before.