Parrish resident Cookie Jordan said there's really no need to connect her neighborhood with Palmetto. "If it's going from here to Palmetto, I really don't see that it's going to accomplish much," Jordan said. "Palmetto really doesn't do anything for us. Our shopping patterns are really more out this way or down Interstate 75 where there are more shopping opportunities."

The board expects county staff and developers early next year to offer a full-scale plan of how to address the roads, sewers and parks that will one day serve new development.

"It's really at the ground level right now, but we're excited at the thought and prospect of it," Heseler said. "If the interest and true desire to build a successful system is there from all the stakeholders, it's something that could happen in 10 years, especially since the rail is already there. But it could be less."

The North County Partnership, a group of 22 developers, builders and landowners, supports the light rail concept, but says it would only be one part of the overall transportation puzzle.

"If we're going to put light rail in, we're going to have to understand that a very high level of density is required to make it sensible," said Dan Barwick, chief executive officer of deMorgan Communities, a local home builder. "It's something that requires the planning of dense development along that rail line. Unless you allow developers to build densely occupied communities around staging areas, (light rail) wouldn't work."

Barwick's suggestion would mean greater concentrations of development in areas where current residents are fighting any increase in density. But commissioners have warned those residents that development in their community is inevitable. The true challenge, they say, is planning sensibly and making concessions everyone can live with.

"Like anything else, if (light rail) saves roads from having to be built, those are the type of issues that are weighed out when you decide the future," McClash said of the rail system. "It can add quality to the community."