SANFORD -- Residents along Celery Avenue want to keep their peaceful, rural way of life, but planners and developers see the area as a good place to build homes so people can live near jobs at Orlando Sanford International Airport.

Residents have watched in frustration as government officials fumbled with a plan to protect their rural neighborhood from unfettered growth. Now, they hope controversy over a proposed development reaching up to Celery Avenue could revive interest in an agreement that would limit housing along the narrow, two-lane road.

The proposed Cameron Heights community would stretch from Celery Avenue, which residents want to keep peaceful, rural and two lanes, to just north of the fast-growing airport. The sprawling neighborhood, on 261 acres, would include a 238,000-square-foot business park, 75,000 square feet of other commercial development and about 1,000 houses and town homes.

Seminole County's Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously against proposed land-use changes that would allow the proposed development. The Seminole County Commission is scheduled to hear the proposal Feb. 8.

Planning and zoning commission members said they couldn't vote for such dense development amid stalled talks between Seminole County and Sanford to regulate growth along Celery.

"I think Cameron Heights is not a good long-term solution for that area until we can agree on a long-term plan," said Dick Harris, chairman of the planning and zoning board.

Critics also question whether dense residential development belongs so close to the airport. Planners say Cameron Heights would be outside the area where noise from the airport is so loud they would want to restrict residential development.

Dwight Saathoff, a land-use attorney and one of the property owners trying to develop Cameron Heights, disagrees with arguments about both proximity to the airport and waiting for Celery Avenue talks to resume.

Homes near Celery Avenue would be spread out to preserve that area's rural character, Saathoff said, and a residential community would allow people to live near jobs at the airport. Saathoff pointed out that planners say that because some of the land is now industrially zoned, Cameron Heights would generate even less traffic than development under current land uses.

Saathoff said he and others who worked on the Cameron Heights proposal planned it well, but "now we got caught up into the four-year discussion on Celery Avenue."

Starting in 2001, residents met with planners to give their thoughts on a joint planning agreement that would have limited the number of homes in new subdivisions along Celery Avenue. It also would have established restrictions dictating the appearance of things such as subdivision walls and lighting.

AREA FEELING PRESSURE

Orange groves, a bromeliad nursery and grazing cattle are among the rural sights along Celery Avenue and its side streets, but Celery Avenue, near the Seminole-Volusia county border, is already feeling the effects of growth from surrounding areas, including the airport about a mile away.

Volusia County commuters driving to jobs in Sanford sometimes use the two-lane road as a shortcut, and Sanford has annexed land for subdivisions that cram in several homes per acre.

County officials have warned that, without an agreement in place, Sanford could allow up to six homes per acre if the city annexes more land along Celery.

"They want to surround us with houses," said Cindi Meriwether, whose family has farmed along Celery Avenue for generations.

Like so many other residents in rural areas, the ones who live on and near Celery Avenue worry that more development will clog roads and schools and worsen drainage problems.

Ken McIntosh, a retired attorney who lives in the Indian Mound Village neighborhood off Celery Avenue, has been to more than two dozen meetings about trying to control growth along the road.

An agreement between Sanford and the county "would have covered all the problems that we're talking about with reference to Celery Avenue," he said.

Officials had talked about a plan that would still allow significantly high densities -- four homes an acre -- on Celery Avenue's western side, and two to three homes an acre on the eastern end. The Sanford City Commission voted to approve an agreement, but county commissioners couldn't agree on density limits. Sanford officials also were nervous about the cost of taking over Celery Avenue and building a stormwater system.

Critics have questioned whether intense residential development in the area is a wise idea, given its proximity to the airport. More people living around the airport, Harris said, means a higher likelihood of fights over future commercial and industrial development around the airport.

PROBLEMS AHEAD?

He cited the University of Central Florida, where nearby residents have protested the school's long-range growth plans and recent talk of an on-site stadium.

"After all the work we've gone through to develop that airport, I'm not going to vote in favor of putting 1,000 homes just to the north of it," he said.

Current zoning would allow about 200 homes on the tract.

Saathoff described locating homes near big commercial developments such as the airport as smart planning, allowing residents to live close to where they work.

"That's what you're trying to do, is put things near one another so people won't have to be on the road so long," he said. "The definition of sprawl, to me, is putting jobs and housing at opposite ends of a town. Here, we're trying to put them right next to each other."