A much-anticipated draft plan to manage growth in Miami-Dade's fast-growing southern end calls for high-density residential development along

U.S. 1, Florida's Turnpike and other transportation corridors while preserving much of the region's farmlands and undeveloped parcels. The county's southern half is expected to take the brunt of growth over the next 50 years, perhaps doubling to 1.5 million people.

The South Miami-Dade Watershed Study and Plan -- $4 million and four years in the making -- warns that unchecked sprawl away from mass-transit arteries would dramatically increase traffic in one of the nation's most congested areas.

Assistant County Manager Roger Carlton chaired the growth advisory committee.

The findings have irked agricultural landowners and building interests, as well as local officials from the affluent municipalities and county neighborhoods that would absorb most of the high-density development. By 2050, the region may need about 200,000 new housing units, the study concludes. County codes restrict development on much of the open land in remote sections of the region.

Bill Losner, chairman of 1st National Bank of South Florida in Homestead and a member of the Watershed Plan advisory committee, complains that environmentalists and no-growth advocates hijacked the planning process, rendering the massive document worthless. "We need to start all over. We need to bring in people who are open-minded," he says. The county commission is reviewing the plan. If approved, changes to the Comprehensive Development Master Plan would take effect in mid-2008, at the earliest.