Supervisors Ponder Nudity Control : Need Seen for New Rules on How Much, When and Where

Cover-up has taken on a new meaning in county government circles these days.

Responding to the pleas of a group of Ramona residents besieged by what they term rampant nudity in their neighborhood, county supervisors are considering new regulations aimed at more strictly controlling when and where county residents and visitors may disrobe.

This week, supervisors ordered that public hearings be held on an ordinance drafted by the county’s planning staff to regulate nudity. The first session is scheduled Feb. 21 before the Planning Commission.

At issue is whether the county should require clothing-optional spas, clubs and parks to obtain special permits before opening for business or converting their establishments to allow nudity.

Debbie Abeel, who with her husband and three children lives in a trailer in a Ramona park, is the leader of a group of residents and former residents of the Samagatuma Resort--once known as the Pow-Wow RV Ranch--who claim it was unfair for the park’s operators to convert the place into a resort for nudists.

Abeel says she and other park residents were given two weeks’ notice when the park changed its rules in June.

“They said, if you don’t like it--leave,” Abeel recalls.

The park had operated as a nudist resort since 1936 until it was converted into a clothing-required park two years ago, but the Abeels say they moved to Ramona from Idaho after hearing from the park’s owners that the Pow-Wow Ranch welcomed families. She said it would be difficult to find another place in the area where the family could afford to live.

“The question is whether people are going have a say before this kind of place comes into their community,” Brian Abeel said.

After nudists started showing up on the weekends, the Abeels and 20 others hired an attorney and won a restraining order prohibiting the nakedness, at least temporarily. Now, even though they acknowledge that their landlords are on the verge of forcing them out of the park, the Abeels have taken their cause to county government.

Supervisor George Bailey, who represents the area on the Board of Supervisors, persuaded his colleagues to ask that a county ordinance be amended to regulate nude spas, clubs and parks.

“If I’m living in a mobile home park and my next-door neighbor starts running around with no clothes on, my wife is not going to be very happy about it, and neither am I,” Bailey said. “That’s what happened in this case, and we have no way of stopping it.”

The rules drawn up by the planning staff require that “nudist facilities” apply for and be granted a major use permit, which would involve a public notice and hearings if the application drew protests. The ordinance also requires that the places be “screened in such a manner that no nude person can be seen from outside the facility’s boundaries.”

The ordinance lists 12 body parts, the baring of any one of which is considered nudity.

Mike Walters, an attorney who represents the park’s operators, said he isn’t sure whether they will fight the ordinance. But he said he thinks it’s wrong.

“It seems to me that if given the choice of having nudists in a private facility with a fence around it where you know that’s what you’re going for, or on a public beach or a public park, it would be much better to have it in a private facility,” Walters said. “We’ve lived this long in San Diego County without such an ordinance. My grandfather used to say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ ”

The proposal has also attracted protests from the Western Sunbathers Assn., which sent several representatives to monitor the supervisors’ meeting Wednesday.

Cecil Cinder of Sunnymead said he believes the county has overreacted to the Ramona incident. He said the permit process is the county’s way of registering nudists.

“There are ample laws on the books already to deal with the problem of public nudity,” Cinder said. “The first step is to register us, then they’ll try to eradicate us.”

Rolin Bruno, a Riverside resident, said innocent nudists have been unfairly caught up in the “hysteria” surrounding increased reports of child molestation and pornography rings.

“I’d like to be able to take my children to a place where they can have a healthy attitude toward their bodies,” he said.

But Bailey, who insists he is no prude, said current county ordinances allow nudists to do just about anything but walk down a public street. And he’s not happy about that.

“There are no regulations at all for this,” he said. “Frankly, there’s as much a problem from outsiders infringing on nudity as from nudity infringing on its neighbors.”