Three residents of Savin Hill Avenue near Playstead Road on Monday sued the Zoning Board of Appeal and the owners of what is now a single family home at 164 Savin Hill Ave. over plans to enlarge it into three condos.

In their suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Jonathan Crowell, Colleen Coffey and Matthew Patton are seeking a preliminary injunction by Pauline King and her son Tony to start any work on the project and, ultimately, a ruling by a judge to "annul" or throw out, the zoning board's Jan. 10 approval - plus the awarding of damages and attorney's fees.

The three charge the project will "have a direct negative impact" on their properties by "decreasing the available parking, increasing traffic and congestion, decreasing pedestrian safety, and increasing density beyond what the neighborhood is zoned for" and that the zoning board should be ashamed of itself for approving variances for a project on land that doesn't have any particular hardships to warrant overriding the lot's zoning.

The zoning of the property, they say, allowed the Kings the "reasonable use" of their property without variances - specifically, the zoning allows the family to increase the size of their house to a two-family building, without needing to eliminate "almost all open space on the property," let alone put in an underground garage.

Simply being able to sell each condo for $1.2 million, which they allege the Kings plan to do, is no reason to grant variances, they say.

The neighbors allege the new units will only make Savin Hill Avenue even more dangerous than it already is - Patton and Coffey say they have three children under 5 - and that unlike the Kings' new triplex, their homes have no off-street parking, so they are being disadvantaged because the new building's occupants will park on the street even with the parking garage.

Watch the hearing: