The population of the midlands will increase by 100,000 by 2020 if the right planning decisions are taken now, according to the Midlands Regional Authority.
However, the region will be left with poor infrastructure and services if current trends created by pressure from Dublin commuters are allowed to continue.
The draft planning guidelines for the authority, which cover Westmeath, Laois, Offaly and Longford, are to be put on public display today.
"By 2020, the midlands will be a successful, sustainable and equitable region full of opportunities for its expanded population," the authority has promised.
The region, it said, is enjoying "relatively prosperous times", with less than 5 per cent unemployment, though the numbers depending on agriculture are higher than elsewhere.
The population of the midlands has risen by 20,000 over the last six years to 225,000, compared with a fall of 13,500 between 1986 and 1996.
Once in place, the planning guidelines will implement the National Spatial Strategy, which identified Athlone, Tullamore and Mullingar as the main motors for development. The authority now proposes to set up a special group known as the Investment Prioritisation Group (IPG) to monitor the delivery of the National Development Plan.
The IPG will be told to link up with the Department of Transport, the National Roads Authority, CIÉ and others, to ensure that target dates are met.
However, the region will have to cope with further changes in agriculture, peat harvesting and peat-fired power stations that are all in "a historical period of decline". The rapid expansion of Dublin has led to an increase in the population in the eastern parts of the authority's area, along with higher house prices.
Contrasting this with population falls elsewhere, the authority said: "This trend has the capacity to undermine the integrity and future of rural communities and services in the long term." If current patterns continue, "economic activity will be drained from the region as commuters living in the midlands continue to shop" in Dublin.
Rural communities, if left unattended, will continue to decline and become less viable, while "the daytime countryside" will empty of people as "commuters replace farmers".
"This scenario will create difficulties in the development of an identity or image for the region to stimulate economic development. A 'laissez-faire' or 'do-nothing' approach will not provide the necessary focus and consequential critical mass among the principal towns and increasingly dispersed development," it said.
Equally, however, the focus cannot be kept entirely on Athlone, Tullamore and Mullingar, the three towns labelled as "gateways" under the National Spatial Strategy.
Such a course would impact unfairly upon Portlaoise and Longford, and "would do little" to protect the wider rural population.
The proper development of the gateways, along with Portlaoise and Longford, would ensure that development would "permeate down to the local level".
On rural housing, the authority said that people "with clear links to rural areas need to be accommodated in suitable areas".
New developments should first be built on derelict or brownfield sites, while other developments will be cleared if services can be provided "within a reasonable timeframe".
The existing secondary roads - particularly between Athlone, Mullingar and Tullamore - are "hindering" business, while links to Portlaoise are "poor", the authority said.
A Strategic Development Zone (SDZ), which allows for fast-track planning, should be set up somewhere between Athlone, Tullamore and Mullingar.
Approximately 3,600 new homes were completed in 2002 in the midlands, a reduction of 600 on the previous year, but still up on the 2,500 figure achieved in 1998 and 1999.
