Upcounty residents are stepping up opposition to a proposed 31-home subdivision in the county's Agricultural Reserve.

The proposed Barnesville Oak Farms subdivision would cluster 31 houses on 840 acres at 21121 Beallsville Road in Dickerson, but some residents say the plan is too much for the 93,000-acre Reserve, where development is restricted. Residents say they are concerned their wells could be affected when the homes are built and that too much traffic would be added.

"It's like a suburban subdivision in the middle of the Ag Reserve," Kirk Mettam of Dickerson said.

More than 200 people have signed a petition opposing the development, and one neighbor started a Web site, www.stopbarnesvilleoaks.com. Several residents put signs in their yards advocating against Barnesville Oak Farms about a month ago, and about 30 were stolen from 13 properties overnight between Sept. 22-23, Pamela Boe of Dickerson said. Three signs were stolen about two weeks before that, she said, and another disappeared Sunday night.

"There's no reason for this to escalate," Boe said. "We're trying to go through the proper channels and it doesn't need to be a polarized fight."

The signs were made by a neighbor who has a sign-making business and were valued at $45 each, Mettam said.

The plan, which has not gone before the Planning Board yet, includes two large lots that will continue to be farmed, according to a statement from land planner Benning & Associates.

"We believe the Plan is a fair median, sensitive to community input while keeping agriculture as the primary land use and maintaining what will be two of the largest agricultural parcels in the Agricultural Reserve," the statement says.

The neighbors say they have also been unsuccessful in finding out who owns the land. The Malsama Corp., now called the Balsamah Corp., bought the property in 1980 for $3.66 million, according to state property records and Katharine Sexton of developer Barnesville Oak Farms LLC. A Benning & Associates representative would only describe the owner as an offshore company that buys land at a community meeting last year.

"Everyone out there is pretty civil. We like to do things in a neighborly way, so the first thing we want to do is sit down and talk with the owner," Mettam said. "...It's become quite an annoyance. The local folks don't like that an overseas corporation that no one can talk to is driving this. There's a lot of unnecessary suspicion."

The town of Barnesville also voted to oppose the development Sept. 21, Mayor Pete Menke said.

"They have the legal right to do what they're doing as far as we can tell but we don't have to like it," Menke said. "That would be like adding another town out here."