"Are we premature in reducing lot sizes?" Douglas Aiken asked the Hall County Board of Commissioners. "I would strongly suggest you put this in the desk drawer and pull it out 10 years from now."

Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the amendment on first reading. A final vote will likely come Oct. 25.

Aiken said the country is going through a period at which foreclosure is at an all-time high.

"As the county moves toward build out ... then reduced lot sizes may be appropriate," he said. "But in this case I really don’t see that."

The current minimum lot sizes for Residential 1 and 2 and vacation cottage is 35,000-square-feet, or .8 acres, for lots with public water and septic tanks.

For Agricultural 3 and 4 zonings, the minimum lot size is one acre.

The county has proposed to lower the minimum lot size for those zonings to .7 acres, or 30,000-square-feet.

Gainesville resident Mandy Harris moved four years ago from Gwinnett County, which she said is "wall-to-wall people."

She expressed concern that if minimum lot sizes were lowered, the quality of life in the area would suffer.

"When you start jamming everybody in, I think you’re going to lose what a lot of us moved up here for," Harris said.

Commissioner Steve Gailey said the county has reviewed the proposed change and that citizens’ concerns have been addressed.

He told Aiken that only platted lots two acres or less would be affected.

The change would only affect lots zoned in those specific categories as of the date of the ordinance change.