There was a time, not so long ago, when Pasco County was wide-open country, literally and figuratively.

Pasco's rolling pastures and orange groves formed in an environment without a lot of rules. No Clean Water Act prevented farmers from filling wetlands. No state rules called for saving historical sites. No county ordinances demanded builders give land for roads.

As retirees flooded the U.S. 19 corridor 40 years ago, Pasco's first big building boom drew its energy from that anything-goes atmosphere.

"Free-for-all? It used to be the case," said New Port Richey lawyer and developer Chuck Kalogianis. "There used to be much looser standards - even as early as five years ago."

If Pasco's current building boom is any indication, those days are over.

The county's revised Comprehensive Land-Use Plan promises to corral development. It favors large, master-planned communities, clusters commerce in town centers and gives pedestrians priority.

Drafted after four years of public hearings, the new plan needs final state approval.

Supporters say the plan distills the desires of a broad range of Pasco's residents. Critics say it will straitjacket growth and drive homes beyond the reach of moderate income and first-time buyers.

"People who are the longtime families … in Pasco - their kids aren't going to be living in Pasco County, because they can't afford it," said Pat Gassaway, vice president of Tampa's Heidt & Associates.

The engineering firm works with Newland Communities and other builders of large-scale developments.

To understand what Pasco's new plan may hold for places such as Wesley Chapel, it helps to travel U.S. 19.

The six-lane highway runs north out of Pinellas County through a jumble of shopping centers, apartment blocks and car dealerships. Driveways lead to cookie-cutter subdivisions of low-rise homes. Garish signs tower over everything. Pedestrian fatalities make it one of the most dangerous U.S. highways.

"The county has for decades not realized the ramifications of haphazard and unplanned growth," said environmentalist Jennifer Seney, of Wesley Chapel. "This is the pickle that Pasco finds itself in today."

Pasco officials hope the new plan keeps west Pasco's suburban tossed-salad from spreading east. To bring the plan to life, commissioners must add 17 ordinances to a roster of recent rules that control everything from landscaping to shopping center design to future road set-asides.

"It will not be your grandfather's Pasco," Pasco County Commission member Pat Mulieri said. Like her fellow commissioners, Mulieri supported the comprehensive plan.

The promise of 17 new ordinances constraining their plans, however, has builders fuming.

The devil is in the details, Gassaway said. "The upcoming ordinances are a really big deal."

On May 31, Alex Mourtakos, president of the Pasco Building Association, urged his members to donate to a legal fund aimed at forcing the county to change parts of the long-range plan. The move prompted several consensus-oriented PBA members - Heidt & Associates among them - to quit in protest.

The PBA has yet to file its legal challenge, but Mourtakos has promised to back candidates to oppose Mulieri and Commissioner Steve Simon in their re-election bids this year.

The promise of new ordinances fits with recent efforts to soften the edges of rapid development that has drawn young families and the well-to-do, more so than retirees, said Larry McLaughlin, of Zephyrhills.

"There's more of a desire to shape the county into something that's better planned and maintains a quality of life," said McLaughlin, former president of the east Pasco chapter of the Council of Neighborhood Associations.

"People in these communities don't want to have something taken away from what they've invested in," he said.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.