Property rights and Raleigh's water supply will take center stage Monday when Wake County Commissioners take up a proposal to rezone thousands of acres around the Little River.

The proposal covers 6,237 acres in the watershed surrounding the proposed Little River Reservoir in the county's northeast corner. The change would reduce the residential density allowed from one dwelling for every two acres to one dwelling for every three acres.

It would also place an overlay district on the area that would reduce the percentage of each lot that can be covered with impervious surfaces, such as driveways, decks and rooftops -- a restriction aimed at curbing storm runoff.

Although the city of Raleigh and the Wake Planning Board support the tighter restrictions, Commissioner Tony Gurley said he still needs to be convinced.

"I need to be shown that there is some scientific reason that benefits the public as far as water quality," Gurley said. "In addition, they've got to show me that we do not negatively impact the value of people's property without compensating them."

Existing lots smaller than three acres would be exempt from the new restrictions. Of the roughly 682 lots in the critical area boundaries, about 267 would be directly affected.

Joe Bryan, chairman of the Wake commissioners, said exempting those lots doesn't make the proposal any more palatable.

"There's valid arguments on both sides. I'm personally going to err on the side of property rights," Bryan said.

Little River has a high water-quality classification, and supporters of the proposal worry that environmental regulators might block the reservoir's construction if development pollutes the water.

The six-mile-long lake between Rolesville and Zebulon, in the works for two decades, would provide 17 million gallons of drinking water a day for northeast Wake.

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