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Some residents of a California nudist resort are experiencing birthday suit blues after the owners of the property allegedly cut their power for refusing demands to clothe themselves.
The drastic step is the latest development in a feud between the owners and residents of the historical refuge for the unclothed, Olive Dell Ranch near Riverside, California.
Despite its nudist roots since 1952, owners of the ranch enacted a “textile” policy months ago, forcing residents to clothe themselves in public areas. The residents then sued the owners, alleging they violated their civil rights by restricting their freedom to bare arms, legs and everything in between.
Cutting off the residents’ electricity has had immediate consequences. Their attorney, Frances Campbell, told The California Post that the owners “are actually threatening the lives of my clients” by turning the electricity off.
Many of the residents are seniors or are disabled, leaving them more vulnerable if the utilities are shut off.
Some residents can’t get hot water, and others can’t properly operate needed medical equipment, they told ABC 7. One resident, Jim Cramer, said he’s never missed a payment but is supposed to have a pacemaker monitored by a hospital.
Penny Ogg, who lives there with her partner Nancy, told The Post that she hasn’t been sleeping well at all since her electricity was turned off.
“I haven’t been sleeping very good at all or very much,” she said. “I need a nebulizer to breathe because I have asthma and allergies, and I can’t use that because [that’s electricity].”
Lucky for the residents, they said the health department recently made a visit to the property and deemed it a danger — allegedly telling the owners they needed to get the power turned back on soon.
“Within the next 30 days, we should have power,” Chevy Nelson, a resident of the park and nudist, told The Post.
“What she (the owner) didn’t realize is that as a the type of community that we are in the culture we are. We’re incredibly united. We look out for our neighbors,” Nelson said.
Tensions have risen so much over the electricity problem that ABC 7 cameras captured a physical scuffle between a park employee who was taking a picture of a missing meter and a resident. Police came to scene and arrested both men for mutual combat before citing and releasing them.
The owners, who bought the property in 2019, are accused of letting it go to ruin and forcing residents to maintain it. The pool had been left to turn green, the sauna and restaurant were closed, community events were canceled and the water system was neglected, leaving people without drinking water at points.
Roads, showers and tennis courts also deteriorated.
Residents even began feeling unsafe when the front gate stopped locking, and they began worrying about peeping toms checking out the nudists.
The nudists’ attorney said it’s clear the owners want them out, and expressed that the resort is well out of the public eye.
“You have to drive up a long dirt road to get there, and it’s gated,” Campbell told ABC 7. “It’s not something (a member of the public) is going to just happen upon.
“For an owner to take over and say you can’t be nudists anymore means they just want them gone,” she added.
The attorney considers the nudists’ affinity for bare skin to be a characteristic that they can be discriminated against for.
“The reason it’s against the law, is the civil rights act prohibits any business from discriminating against anyone based on their characteristics,” she told ABC 7.
The nudists are seeking millions in damages from the owners of the Olive Dell Ranch for breach of contract, negligence, elder abuse, civil rights violations, and other things. Campbell said an associate from her firm was in court Friday fighting for the nudists, and the judge chided the defendants on engaging in “self-help” evictions.
Ogg said the nudist paradise used to be idyllic.
“People would be laying around enjoying the sun, and the restaurant,” she said. “If you’re in the jacuzzi, bubbling, and you ordered a meal, they would bring it to you.”
“It was all very, very nice. It was all family.”
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