Confused, developers sue over golf-course covenant

A lawsuit filed by owners of a Benton golf course seeks judgment on whether a dated covenant prevents the sale of the course for an apartment development that some area residents don’t want.

The suit, filed last month in Saline County Circuit Court by Longhills Inc., asks whether the land has been released from a 1986 covenant that designated the property “solely as a golf course” and other related activities.

“There is some confusion about the covenant itself and how it was released,” said Bud Busken, vice president of Longhills Inc. “It appears that it was released, and we all thought it was released.”

But the apartment development has been held up until the covenant issue is settled.

Much of the land designated in the covenant was traded to Longhills Properties LLC in 1999 and developed into Longhills Village, an upper-income subdivision of about 300 homes.

That year, a document releasing the area from the covenant was signed by the heirs of Bill Martin, the golf course’s original owner who executed the covenant.

“The problem with that is that Bill Martin acted on behalf of the corporation, so the corporation needed to release the covenant, not Bill’s heirs,” Busken said.

Busken and Longhills Inc. President Jeff Hamm signed a contract in July 2011 with The Links at Longhills — an ownership group created by Jim Lindsey of Lindsey Management Co. Inc. of Fayetteville — to sell the property.

Lindsey Management didn’t learn about the covenant until early 2012 and after the planning commission

had approved the developers’ proposal. “Our proposal has been tabled pending resolution to the covenant issue,” said Hugh Jarratt, attorney for Lindsey Management.

Longhills Golf Course and Country Club closed in September and had been for sale for at least three years, Busken said.

“We are just trying to keep it a golf course, whatever it takes, and right now this is the only option we got on the table,” Busken said.

If Lindsey Management builds at Longhills, the golf course, swimming pool and other facilities would stay open to the public, Busken said.

Lindsey Management owns 15 other properties in Arkansas that have apartments built around golf courses.

Some Longhills Village residents, though, are protesting construction of apartments in their neighborhood.

Seven couples and four individuals who own lots specified in the covenant are listed as defendants in the lawsuit, as well as Longhills Properties LLC and eight banks that hold mortgage interests in the properties.

Terry Jensen, one of those listed as a defendant along with his wife, Lisa Jensen, spoke out against the apartments at a Benton City Council meeting last year.

“When I bought in Longhills Village, I expected it to remain a single-family development, quiet neighborhood,” he said, according to a transcript of the meeting. “Had I known that this could be changed into a multi-family complex abutting it, I would have never invested in Longhills Village.”

Lindsey Management’s plan calls for 792 one- and two-bedroom units in a three-story building that will be to the west of the entrance to Longhills Village. The plan includes 80 percent green space with 4.65 units per acre. The area is zoned for three units per acre.

One entrance and exit is planned with a road leading out to Arkansas 5, leaving the entrance to Longhills Village unaffected by additional traffic the apartment complex will bring in.

Bill Lenz, who lives next to the golf course, worries about traffic in general.

“Eight hundred cars in the morning and evening will be a traffic nightmare at the overpass where Highway 5 meets I-30,” he said at the council meeting.

But a majority of 234 Longhills Village residents who responded to a door-to-door survey said they favored the apartments, according to John Campbell, representative of Longhills Village Property Owners Association. Two were undecided and 46 were against, he said.

Resident Ken Quick said he prefers the apartments over the land being bought by a single-family housing developer, who might do away with the golf course.

“With home sales down and rentals up, Lindsey’s plan offers Benton a growth of opportunity that will be unmatched by single-family homes — plus we get to keep the golf course,” Quick said.

Jarratt presented statistics from the National Association of Traffic Engineers that showed the number of traffic trips that would be added to the area by apartment residents is “roughly the same” as what would be added if single-family homes were built there.

When a resident expressed concerns that his son was already put on a waiting list for Howard Perrin Elementary, Jarratt said the company generates 0.31 school-age children per unit, which would be about 143 children at the Benton complex.

Howard Perrin Elementary can add 200 more students without hiring additional staff, interim Benton school Superintendent Dan Jordan said. The area middle school can accept about 100 more children and the junior high is not at capacity either, he said.

The city gets $6,267 in state funds per student.

“This is a $50 million project, so tax revenues from that will be about $561,000 per year, and of that, $420,000 will go to schools,” Busken told the council.

Though Saturday is the deadline given to defendants to file a response with the court, there were just two filed as of Tuesday. One was from a bank that advised it no longer had mortgage interest in the property.

Longhills Properties LLC responded that the company had been dissolved in 2010, no longer had interest in any of the properties and should be removed from the list of defendants.