Countywide

Nude spas, clubs and trailer and mobile home parks in unincorporated areas of San Diego County will have to obtain a special permit before opening, the Board of Supervisors decided Wednesday.

The board voted unanimously--with Supervisors Leon Williams and George Bailey absent--to create stricter regulations that would require public hearings and a $3,200 filing fee to obtain the permits needed to open or convert a facility into a clothing-optional operation, said John McCormick, a county planner.

The question of regulating nude facilities surfaced last summer when owners of the Samagatuma Resort in Ramona, a recreational vehicle and trailer park that operated as a nudist resort from 1936 to 1984 under the name of Pow-Wow RV Ranch, began allowing nudists on weekends.

The permanent residents of the park, many of whom have children, complained that they were told by the owners when they moved in that the park was no longer a resort for nudists, Debbie Abeel told the supervisors Wednesday. Abeel lived in the Ramona park with her husband and three children until they were evicted in January.

“I was mainly concerned for the children,” said Abeel, who spearheaded the fight for regulations against nudity. “It was so bad that many of the kids were made fun of by other kids at school.”

Owners of the park or their attorneys could not be reached for comment.