"People are going to the fringe, and other people follow them," said Jim Hecimovich, assistant director of research for the American Planning Association in Chicago. "They are pushing farther and farther out."

Controlling sprawl and saving farmland are "climbing the political agenda as items of concern," he said.

The United States lost 40 million acres of farmland between 1988 and 1998, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics.

THAT'S WHY national organizations such as the Land Trust Alliance and American Farmland Trust are working to preserve open space and farmland.

At the local level, dozens of communities have enacted strict anti-sprawl measures, and 60 organizations that advocate growth control recently formed the Smart Growth America coalition.

Communities across the nation also are moving to finance programs to preserve open space and farmland and to add parks, trails and greenways. In 1999, according to the Land Trust Alliance, 102 communities in 22 states held referendums on open-space initiatives, and 92 of them passed, including bond issues and new taxes.

While the growth-control movement is gaining momentum, many oppose such measures. They say people should be able to live where they choose, and that government efforts to control growth run counter to people's desires for expansive suburbs and more rural settings. Property-rights advocates argue that many of the restrictions will devalue their land.

WHILE BULLITT, Oldham, Shelby and Spencer counties are among the fastest-growing areas in Kentucky, they have yet to see the growth rate that has left parts of the country reeling.

In areas such as Chicago, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., the suburbs are enveloping the second and third tier of surrounding counties, with some of the fastest-growing counties seeing their populations double in the past decade.

That's what happened in Loudoun County, Va., which is in the second tier of counties surrounding Washington.

Its population doubled from 86,000 in 1990 to an estimated 172,000 today. Building permits for 6,000 housing units have been issued this year.

The county has "pulled back the growth boundaries until we can catch our breath," said Julie Pastor, Loudoun's director of planning.

WATER AND sewer lines won't be extended into the western side of the county, which is still rural, to limit development there. And officials also may change the density allowed in areas zoned for agriculture. The minimum lot size would go from three acres to 25.

Calvert County, Md., just south of the booming Baltimore and Annapolis corridor, is typical of communities taking strong measures to curb growth.

Its population jumped from 51,370 to 75,000 in 10 years.

New subdivisions aren't approved unless the roads meet certain safety and traffic-count standards. And new developments can't go in school-attendance zones where a school is 10 percent above capacity.

"Developers will move to where the schools are adequate," said Greg Bowen, the deputy director of the county's department of planning. In addition, a $3,000 impact fee is included in the building permit fee for each new home to help pay for school construction.

Three years ago, the county studied the long-term impact of growth and figured "how much we could accommodate without adversely impacting the quality of life," Bowen said. The result was a decision to reduce zoning density by half. In rural areas, for example, the minimum lot size increased from five to 10 acres.