Nudist Camp Sues to Keep County From Closing It
The operator of the Elysium Fields nudist camp in Topanga Canyon filed suit in U.S. Superior Court in Los Angeles on Tuesday, seeking to overturn a decision by the county Board of Supervisors to close the camp.
The lawsuit, filed by Elysium Institute Inc., operator of the clothing-optional camp, and Churchill Land Corp., owner of the property on Robinson Road where the camp is situated, asks the court to order the board to set aside its April 1 vote. The vote denied a nonconforming-use permit to allow the camp to legally continue operating.
The lawsuit charges, among other things, that the ordinance on which the board based its action is unconstitutional. The lawsuit also argues that, pending the outcome of the suit, the county should not be allowed to file a criminal misdemeanor complaint aimed at closing the camp, as it has threatened to do.
The board has been trying to close Elysium for 16 years in the longest and costliest zoning battle in Los Angeles County history but has been thwarted by court rulings. After the April 1 decision, Elysium founder Ed Lange vowed to take the matter to court again.
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