Temporary injunction granted against Eastgate II residence

A temporary injunction granted last month prohibits the owners of an Eastgate II residence from using the 209 Quail Creek Road address as a boardinghouse.

The attorney for more than a dozen Eastgate II property owners who sued Neaville LLC in February told The Sentinel-Record earlier this year that the company intended to use the residence as a “quasi nursing home.” An amended complaint filed later that month said the owners planned to convert the home into a multifamily boardinghouse, renting each of its three bedrooms for $6,000 a month to three non-related tenants.

“The defendant intends to create a building where lodgers who may or may not have any affiliation with one another rent a single room on a monthly basis while the defendant maintains the common areas providing board, laundry and medical services,” said the amended complaint attorney Tylar Tapp filed Feb. 28.

Division 3 Circuit Judge Lynn Williams’ May 26 order enjoined Neaville from using the property as a for-profit enterprise. The ruling cited the 1978 bill of assurance for Eastgate II that prohibits activity that could become an “annoyance or nuisance to the neighborhood” and stipulates the neighborhood shall be used for residential purposes only. It also pointed to the neighborhood’s suburban-residential zoning designation.

Williams held a hearing March 14 on the emergency injunction he issued in February. His order for temporary injunctive relief said allowing a commercial enterprise into the neighborhood would leave it “irreparably damaged” by decreased property values and increased traffic.

According to building records, Matt Neaville was issued a permit Dec. 27 to remodel the home’s kitchen and bathroom and replace windows and doors. He is listed as one of five corporate officers for Neaville LLC, which incorporated last November. The company purchased the property in December for $165,000.

A brief filed March 9 in support of the company’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit said $50,000 was spent renovating the house, improvements the brief said increased the value of neighboring properties. The brief said the company planned on renting the house for $2,500 a month.

“While the concept of renting a 2,300 square foot house for $18,000 per month may be realistic to the plaintiffs, it’s not realistic to the defen-

dant,” the brief said.

Renting the property, the brief said, would be consistent with how other properties in the neighborhood are used. The brief said at least three Eastgate II properties are rental properties.

“There are no facts or allegations in the complaint or amended complaint that state that having a rent house is utilizing the property for commercial purposes,” the brief said. “If that is the case, then the bill of assurance is being violated by other lot owners, and the restrictions therein have been waived by the lot owners.”

The Hot Springs Planning and Development Department told The Sentinel-Record in February that Neaville representatives indicated elderly people would be living at the residence. It said the activity the representatives said would take place there didn’t require a conditional-use permit.

The city’s zoning code allows nursing/convalescent homes in areas designated suburban-residential on a conditional basis.

“It doesn’t rise to the level of a nursing home,” Planning and Development Director Kathy Sellman said earlier this year. “We didn’t see (a conditional-use permit) as a requirement.”