Howard is on the brink of countywide rezoning, a once-a-decade process infused with opportunity and risk.

For the County Council, it is the chance to guide growth, attack problems and tinker with the tax base all at once - or set in motion troubles that could take a generation to correct.

For landowners and developers, it offers a tempting possibility of more profitable development - or less, depending on how the chips fall.

For the average homeowner, it could bring community change - for better or for worse.

Any zoning adjustment affects lives in this affluent county, where real estate is valuable and undeveloped land is expected to run out within 20 years. But planners and council members expect fewer changes than in the last comprehensive rezoning, most of them focusing on the tired U.S. 1 corridor.

After months of talk about improving the boulevard, comprehensive rezoning is the county's first means for major action.

"It's really pivotal," said Steven H. Adler, managing partner of Savage Mill and co-chair of the Route 1 Corridor Task Force. "The bulk of the work is in front of us."

The task force of business and community leaders, hoping to stop the proliferation of motels and gas stations, has recommended new zoning districts to revamp the area with higher-density housing; an "activity center" mixing retail and residences; and "targeted" businesses such as corporate headquarters.

Joseph W. Rutter Jr., the county's planning director, said his department will include those ideas in its rezoning proposal. A draft probably will be released by February, he said. He expects the County Council to vote at the end of next year, after several public hearings.

"We're already getting some individual requests from property owners," Rutter said. "There isn't a whole lot that's undeveloped to be talking about."

So far, 21 people with roughly 80 acres combined have asked planners to consider a switch in zoning, mostly residential to commercial. The largest parcel, 10 acres on Ducketts Lane near U.S. 1, is proposed for apartment zoning.

About 100,000 acres were rezoned in the two-year-long 1990s comprehensive effort - nearly all of western Howard and about 1,500 acres in the east.

The changes in western Howard allowed homes to be clustered and development rights "traded" from one property to another, preserving some parcels by doubling lots elsewhere. Rezoning in the east paved the way for the large mixed-use developments of Maple Lawn Farms and Emerson.

This time, the county's five councilmen - all new to comprehensive rezoning - want to increase Howard's share of affordable housing, its commercial tax base or both.

Homes don't pay for themselves, but the average business needs only 30 cents of services for every dollar it is taxed, said Councilman Guy J. Guzzone, a North Laurel/Savage Democrat.

"Quite frankly, that's why I took an interest in Route 1: Because I recognize, as many people did, that it was really the last area of commercial property that was left to be developed, and the way in which we developed it would play a big role in sustaining our long-term fiscal health," Guzzone said.

The council should also look at residentially zoned land next to commercial areas to see if a rezoning is in order, said Councilman Allan H. Kittleman, a western Howard Republican.

"We need to have more commercial property," he said. "This is a once-in-an-every-10-year shot."

Councilman David A. Rakes, a Democrat who represents east Columbia and part of Elkridge, believes the county needs denser housing outside the U.S. 1 area as well so that more public servants and young professionals can afford to live in the county.

"We're going to have to increase density in certain areas because we're simply running out of space," he said. "We're not talking about low-income housing or Section 8, we're talking about housing to meet the needs of a range of people."

Councilman Kenneth S. Ulman, a west Columbia Democrat, expects that some of the land with Columbia addresses but without its strict covenants will come in for rezoning, while Councilman Christopher J. Merdon figures a long-running fight over the fate of land opposite Long Gate shopping center will come to a head.

Merdon, an Ellicott City Republican, said everything will be on the table this time - to leave the land residential, rezone it commercial, target it for senior housing or use it for an elementary school.