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The massive FedEx air hub scheduled to open next summer will employ hundreds of workers and also be a big draw for other companies that want to be close to the overnight shipper.

A new report suggests that the hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport could lead to more than 17,000 jobs there and in related fields.

But keeping those companies from using too much land, clogging up roads and fouling the environment will take as much skill as moving packages through a complex sorting system.

"I have a sense of urgency about moving forward. It's important that we try to start working on zoning and planning before something happens that we don't like," said Jim Morgan, the High Point lawyer who is chairman of a task force planning the region's response to the growth.

As interest in FedEx grows, development pressure is likely to multiply.

For example, distribution companies that are often attracted to air hubs need millions of square feet of warehouse space to handle their cargo. Without careful location guidelines, developers may grab the first cheap land they find.

So later this month, Morgan's committee, sponsored by the Piedmont Triad Partnership, will sign off on this new plan and set out to hire an executive who can work with local governments and businesses to clear a path for growth.

That's key because the report said that a haphazard blight of building and growth will choke the airport region - and stunt job growth - without a strong coalition of governments that can agree on land-use guidelines.

Morgan said that the project's executive, who will likely be an expert in government, will have to think "about this project 24/7 and be sure that we're working with local government, county government, state government."

He insists that the report will bring action, not just information. "You need somebody to be bulldogging and working on this continuously," Morgan said. "We don't want another dusty report - it gives us a great start."

Drawing governments together to agree on seamless zoning and planning - Greensboro and Guilford County or High Point and Guilford County, for example - is a difficult task in every country at every airport, according to the report, written by John Kasarda and Stephen Appold, of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Although some local critics believe these groups should have started talking sooner, Morgan said government officials have been talking for more than a year about the impact of the FedEx hub.

The report also suggests this region find a way to finance a "land bank" so that the group can buy good industrial sites and reserve them until a company is ready to build. Companies often move quickly, and the right land can make the deal.

Finding money for that is the first step. The recession will hurt the process, Morgan said, but it has a bright side. "We have a little more time than we thought we did."

Now is the best time to capitalize on the Triad's assets, he said, which are already well ahead of those in many communities.

The report stresses that a mature and improving highway system, plenty of development sites, major universities and such high-profile companies as Honda Aircraft and FedEx, will be natural attractions.

Major suggestions in the 164-page report include getting state and local money to build an independent cargo hub for regional shippers and cargo airlines in tandem with FedEx; a cold-storage hub that could handle perishables such as fruit and flowers; and an inland port designation that could smooth shipments of container cargo from the ocean to trains and planes.

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com