CLEVELAND - Some residents here are coming together to talk about what it would take for this growing community to become a full-fledged town.

About 20 Cleveland-area residents met last week to consider setting in motion plans to incorporate.

Others have tried before them. Several year ago, some residents, including a major developer, tried to make Cleveland a town -- a lengthy process that requires a petition, legislative approval and a final OK from voters. But they didn't get far.

This time, though, residents have new motivators. County leaders recently approved plans for a major retail and housing development near the interchange of Interstate 40 and N.C. 42. And Cleveland's unincorporated neighbor to the north has set an example for other wannabe towns. Voters in Archer Lodge will decide Nov. 3 if their community will incorporate.

"People are going back to what was talked about years ago," said Laurel Lane, who lives in the Cleveland community. "And years ago, it flopped."

Lane, who owns a business in Cleveland, was against incorporation efforts in the '90s "because I didn't understand what it meant," she said.

Now, Lane wants to learn more about the possibilities.

Some residents who gathered last Thursday signed up to serve on a "fact-finding committee." They took it upon themselves to research the next steps.

Those who met last week got some advice from David Mills, a local attorney who has guided the Archer Lodge community through the incorporation process.

Mills suggested the committee schedule public hearings where folks can talk about the pros and cons of incorporation. If Cleveland did incorporate, elected leaders in the new town, not county commissioners, would control how future developments took shape. But residents would have to pay town taxes.

"Your biggest hurdle in this whole thing is convincing people the taxes they pay ... will reap benefits for them," Mills said.

Chris Key, a Cleveland resident who attended last week's meeting, said he is skeptical about voting to tax himself. He said he worries about the community's future and doesn't want to rule out an option that could allow Cleveland to have a bigger say in planning and zoning while remaining unincorporated.

County Commissioner Allen Mims said that's a possibility.

"I don't want to pay more," Key said. "But if it came with good services, I'd entertain the idea of paying more."

Services could include fire and police protection, trash pickup and planning and zoning regulation.

Carl Johnson, who has lived in the Cleveland area for five years, is helping lead the latest incorporation effort. He said it's too soon to say what a map of Cleveland would look like or how much property owners would pay in taxes. It's even too early to talk about naming the town, he said. North Carolina already has a town called Cleveland.

Johnson has set up a Web site about his efforts. Go to www.clevelandschool.webs.com for more information.