The city boundaries of Gravette and Bella Vista, according to the Benton County Assessor's website, are shown above. Hole in the Wall LLC says in a lawsuit that Bella Vista's 2015 annexation of its land isn't valid.
A disagreement between property owners and the city of Bella Vista has landed in court.
The owners of Hole in the Wall campground, a 12-acre tract centered on a cave, filed for an injunction in Benton County Circuit Court after the city ruled the property was inside Bella Vista’s city limits. The location is important because Bella Vista’s residential zoning designation would not allow Hole in the Wall to host parties or camping activities.
In the lawsuit filed this month by attorney Ryan Agnew of Bentonville, the owners said they had an agreement with the city to allow “pre-existing, nonconforming” commercial use of the property. The acreage is located at the southwest tip of Lake Windsor and was in unincorporated Benton County until the city annexed the property in 2015.
However, the city failed to file the annexation with the county, so title searches still indicated the property was outside the city. Hole in the Wall LLC —Steve Outain, Beth Day, Julie Duncan and Duane Paterson — bought the property for $199,000 in July 2018.
According to the lawsuit, owners met with Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie, Economic Development Manager Travis Stephens and other city officials before the acquisition to try to sort out the confusion. Since the annexation of the property hadn’t been filed, the owners bought the property and moved forward with the commercial development.
The lawsuit said Bella Vista filed the annexation with the county in October 2018 — too late to be valid.
The lawsuit said the city agreed to let the owners operate commercially at the site after legal action was threatened in late November. On March 22, the city notified the owners that it was terminating the agreement and forbidding commercial operations on the property.
Hole in the Wall’s owners are suing for breach of contract and asking for punitive damages since, they said, the city acted in bad faith by reneging on the agreement.
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