D eep among the rolling, wooded hills just inside Raleigh's northern Beltline, several dozen of the capital city's most influential families are fighting back against the creeping carving up of older neighborhoods to make way for denser redevelopment.

The renewal rebellion has coalesced in the tony Lakestone neighborhood, a small but stately enclave up against the Beltline between Lassiter Mill and Marlowe roads.

Leaders of the uncrowding campaign say they don't mind tear-downs, per se, or infill, or dividing lots -- they've experienced them all, and they accept them.

But they don't want to lose the large-lot character of their quiet, leafy, middle-aged neighborhood for profit or urban progress.

And so the Lakestone resistance movement has taken up arms in the form of preventive rezoning.

About three dozen of Lakestone's families have petitioned the city to downzone 44 lots on 51 acres from R-4 to R-2 -- which means the lots would have to remain at least a half-acre.

"This is a very unique area," said Raleigh real estate lawyer Kenneth Haywood, who lives in Lakestone and represents the group. "It's simply a matter of trying to preserve the character of the neighborhood."

As Haywood and others described it this week to Raleigh's Planning Commission, neighbors first kicked the idea around in May. At subsequent holiday gatherings, they agreed to push back against the kind redevelopment that has become common -- and controversial -- in much of Raleigh.

Lakestone's wary residents have to look no farther than the entrance to their subdivision, at Lakestone Drive and Lassiter Mill Road, to see the threat: a row of new homes on small lots.

Lakestone's large majority doesn't want that to "creep on down," said another of its leaders, Raleigh lawyer Ed Gaskins. "We are opposed to changing the character of the neighborhood."

Even so, two families opted out.

Where the nine others affected stand isn't entirely clear. They were notified twice by mail, didn't object, and are presumed to agree or not to care either way.

"They've had since August to come forward and say they have issues with it, and they have not done that," Haywood said. "I feel that I have given them every opportunity to know what is occurring. I don't know that there's anything more we can do."

That wasn't enough to satisfy three commission members who wanted confirmation of each family's position before voting.

"We're making a lot of assumptions," said vice-chairwoman Maha Chambliss, an engineer. "The question is, do these nine people really want in, or out?"

Chambliss and fellow planning commissioners Tom Bartholomew and Stephen Smith favored delaying the vote two weeks to give Haywood time to send the nine nonresponders a third letter, this time by certified mail.

But they were outvoted by five commissioners who were satisfied with the previous attempts to contact the homeowners. They agreed to endorse the rezoning.

Residents turn out

About a dozen of Lakestone's residents attended the commission meeting to show their support for the rezoning, including Jim Goodmon, president of Raleigh's Capitol Broadcasting Co. Big Jim didn't say a word -- and maybe he didn't have to.

Other prominent Lakestone residents backing the rezoning include construction-equipment dealer Greg Poole; Jane F. Pope, the wealthy widow of Raleigh businessman John Pope Jr.; Thad Woodard, president of the North Carolina Bankers Association; and Triangle radio mogul Don Curtis.

The final call on Z-18-08 falls to Raleigh's City Council.

Will its rezoning ruling set a precedent for preserving Raleigh's older big-lot neighborhoods?

Either way, a lot is at stake.