Nudists Lose Their Land

The nudists are getting ready to pack.

Members of Elysium Fields, a six-acre “clothing optional” resort nestled in the hills near Topanga State Park, are looking for a new home after learning that the property on which the resort is located is in escrow.

Betty Meltzer, co-director of Elysium and a longtime member, said resort officials were notified several weeks ago that the property, owned by the daughters of Elysium’s founder, had been placed on the market.

Sources said a group of physicians seeking to open a cancer retreat made an offer for the property, put on the market at $2.6 million, and that the daughters accepted.

Meltzer said the group, which in the past year has added more than 200 members to its once-dwindling roster, has not been told officially about the sale, but is planning to move to another site “somewhere in the Santa Monica Mountains.”

Another source said the group hopes to acquire a site in Malibu.

If the sale closes escrow, it will end a decades-long battle by the late Ed Lange and his supporters to keep Elysium located on its bucolic perch.

A spartan compound with a decidedly ‘60s feel, Elysium Fields advertises itself as a place where people can pursue a variety of activities, from swimming to tennis, without clothes.

Meltzer acknowledged that there is some irony in that: In the end, it wasn’t the zoning board or irate neighbors or even the courts that moved Elysium off the land, but descendants of Lange, who died in 1995.

Technically, the property--a 9-acre parcel that includes the Elysium site and residential property nearby--is owned by the Lange Family trust, of which the two daughters are the sole beneficiaries.

The daughters, Lisa Lang of Washington state and Dana Lange of Topanga (who spell their last name differently), could not be reached for comment.

But a source close to them said the owners went out of their way to give Elysium an opportunity to buy the property and had given the resort the first shot at the sale, before the property was listed.

“It appears that Elysium was unable to pay the fair value for the property,” said the source, who asked not to be identified.

Meltzer and other Elysium supporters said that when they had the land appraised a year ago, the value was placed at $1.1 million--the figure they offered the owners.

“The owners received multiple offers far in excess of the amount offered by Elysium,” the source said.

Some members of Elysium, who worked with Lange and shared his vision of creating a “safe, supportive environment” for nudists, were clearly upset about the forced move.

“None of us ever thought the girls would sell it outright, because their father is there,” said one longtime member, speaking metaphorically about Lange’s presence.

But it was Lange’s death, some said, that sent the membership sliding to only about 500 last year. Over the past several months, backers said they had been able to turn things around, boosting membership to about 700.

“We brought this thing back from the brink,” the longtime member said. “And we were rewarded by being kicked off the land.”

But that member and others expressed the determination to continue Lange’s mission elsewhere.

Almost from its inception in 1968, Lange had to fight to keep his compound going. Neighbors complained openly of traffic and fire concerns, and fretted quietly about nudists cavorting next door.

In 1993, after a lengthy and costly legal skirmish that went to the state Court of Appeal, Elysium won the right to exist--provided it adhered to the stipulations of a conditional-use permit from the county Regional Planning Commission.

That five-year permit expired in 1998 and Elysium is still, technically, in the process of seeking another. A spokeswoman said that renewal of the permit is likely if the resort meets some additional conditions. But she said an official vote is not expected for at least a month.

If the sale goes through, the permit will be moot, a fact of life that some longtime supporters find troubling.

“We were all part of that whole, long climb up the mountain,” said Meltzer, adding that the group would not just fade away. “We’ll have to find another site.”