A decade ago, voters here elected what was termed a ''no-growth'' Council whose aim, critics maintained, was to stem the city's rising population by simply refusing to expand city services to accomodate it.

Such sentiment, which opponents say led to the city's present problems, gradually gave way to a growth-oriented city administration, Now, observers here say, the pendulum has swung back, although the aim now is to control growth, not stop it.

What that means to Mayor-elect Cooksey is imposition of stricter zoning laws to replace those that now allow numerous exemptions, a new environmental ordinance and an aggressive program of annexation, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas, to extend the city's controls outward. Economic Issues Pre-eminent At the same time, Mr. Cooksey says he is by no means against growth or development in themselves. ''Quality of life,'' he said, ''doesn't mean very much if you don't have a job or know where you're going to eat your next meal.''

The city will try to encourage industry to come to Austin by offering job retraining, particularly in technical jobs where employees are now scarce.

But the city will also try ''to be on the front end to work with any company that wants to come here so that they understand the ground rules,'' Mr. Cooksey said. ''So if for some reason in their corporate policy they don't want to comply with those ground rules or consider them an impediment, they can make the decision not to come here.''

Most industries will be willing to cooperate, he said, because ''they also want for their employees the kind of quality of life we're proud of.''

The city's developers, who backed a pro-growth slate, remain wary.

Strict Zoning Called 'Mistake'

John Gray, a consultant who resigned a year ago after heading the Chamber of Commerce's efforts to attract businesses to Austin, says that strict zoning ''would be a terrific mistake.''