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With Hunt' s efforts curtailed, the focus of growth policy-making is now squarely on the legislature' s grow smart- th commission , which convened in January. The 37 -member commission , which G1 VLPWth includes legislators , academics , local politicians and representatives of various business groups , is expected to make recommendations and intro- duce legislation as Hunt prepares to leave office. Still, the Hunt administration is pushing mod- effort est growth policies this year, ones that don't cost the state money in the near term . First and fore- most are bills that would commit the state to pro- tect an additional 1 million acres of land from devel- i opment by 2010, a goal Hunt announced in January. The administration also supports a bill that would stalls allow local transportation planning agencies to merge into regional organizations that could more logically plan road projects across metropolitan areas like the Triangle . With the governor 's ambitions to The administration is also backing abill topro- manage growth Constrained by budget ' vide property-tax breaks to developers who fix up polluted sites . The tax breaks , which would be problems, a legislative commission will phased out over five years after a project is com- have tomake recommendations. pleted, are supported by both the N . C . League of Municipalities and the N. C . Association of County BY RICHARD STR.ADLING Commissioners , which fought a proposed 10-year STAFF WRITER tax break last year. Last fall, Gov. Jim Hunt set out to make man- "We felt this was a fair incentive but at the same aging the state' s rapid growth a top priority of his time not giving away the ranch , " said Andy final year in office . Romanet, lobbyist for the League . But the state ' s $ 450 million budget shortfall has Hunt's task force hearings last fall prompted the dampened Hunt' s ambitions . The budget the gov- Department of Public Instruction to amend its ernor sent to the General Assembly this month school construction guidelines to help school dis- includes only one new item related to his growth tricts redevelop old schools or build new ones on agenda — $ 1 .2 million for farmland preservation, smaller lots . Preservationists and others repeat- " If things had been different, you might have edly criticized the department' s guidelines dun- seen an actual smart- growth package in the leg- ing the hearings , saying they promote sprawl by islature ," said Beau Mills , the governor ' s adviser encouraging school districts to abandon older on growth issues . "It' s clear that he had hoped to schools and site new ones on the edge of town . do more on this . " "There' s a perception that on older inner-city Hunt created a task force on growth issues last school buildings that we routinely say, `Tear them August and sent it across the state for a series of down, ' which is not the case," said Jerry Knott, public hearings . He became a vocal proponent of chief of school planning. smart growth and led 100 government and busi- Hunt deserves credit for even taking on growth ness leaders on a field trip to Atlanta to learn about issues , said Paul Meyer, assistant general coup- that city's growth problems . Smart growth was an sel for the county commissioners association , issue whose time had come , Hunt said . , which co - sponsored last fall' s hearings . Hunt The governor wanted to include more money in helped set the tone for the legislative commission, his budget for mass transit, revitalizing downtowns Meyer said. and preserving land, Mills said. Just a month ago, "I really think that the governor has a pretty Hunt endorsed tripling the minimum size of the good sense that people around the state are ready state ' s Clean Water Management Trust Fund to for something to change," Meyer said. $ 100 million over the next three years , something that has been delayed at least a year. "Clearly there' s no money to do that now," Mills said.