For decades, Olive Dell ranch was a celebrated destination regarded as southern California’s friendliest nudist resort. The 136-acre (55-hectare) property in the San Jacinto foothills offered affordable rents, miles of hiking trails and a community with deep ties.
But residents say that rapidly deteriorated after the property came into new ownership in recent years. The resort’s decision to go “textile”, explicitly banning nudity across the property, was a blow, but Olive Dell also fell into disrepair and longtime occupants were evicted, according to residents.
More than 50 current and former members are suing the property’s owners, accusing them of violating their civil rights, unfair business practices, financial elder abuse and labor violations, among other charges. They argue the owners are making conditions unlivable while increasing rents, and threatening people who complain with eviction.
“We’re just trying to survive,” Nancy Roeder, who has lived at Olive Dell for more than a decade, told KTLA, which first reported on the lawsuit.
The suit accuses the resort’s owners of years of unfair treatment, harassment and discrimination and a conspiracy to evict tenants who adhere to a nudist lifestyle – many of whom are elderly or disabled – in order to increase the value of the property.
“This at its heart is an anti-discrimination case,” said Frances M Campbell, one of the attorneys representing residents.
The ranch was established as a naturist community in 1952. Residents live in RVs or mobile homes and pay an annual membership fee that allows them to use shared facilities, such as a pool, showers, a clubhouse and restaurant, according to the lawsuit.
In 2019, Mark Glasier, Brian Cleland and Tina Coffelt purchased the property and pledged that it would remain a nudist property, the suit states. But in late 2024, they announced that Olive Dell would become a “textile park” and require clothing at all times on the premises, in what the complaint described as a “substantial cultural shift”. Residents say one owner referred to nudists as “nasty people”.
“That’s not the way rules work in mobile home parks. There’s a process,” Campbell said.
Meanwhile, the owners allegedly stopped maintaining the water system and shared facilities, including roads, showers and tennis courts, and halted landscaping, crucial upkeep in the fire-prone area, residents said.
“All of the new rules, procedures, and actions alleged in this complaint were undertaken by Defendants to try to empty the Ranch of residents, many of whom are seniors living on fixed incomes, veterans, and disabled persons,” the suit states.
The pool turned green, the sauna and restaurant were closed and community-led events were no longer permitted, according to the suit. Trash service lapsed, the complaint states, residents lost access to potable water, and electricity costs doubled and even tripled after the owners installed their own electricity meters. One former employee told KTLA she refused to charge residents additional fees and lost her job.
Last year, the community was in the news after an Olive Dell resident was charged with the murders of two of his neighbors, Stephanie Menard, 73, and her husband, Daniel, 79. Police used a ram to break down the resident’s mobile home site and the property owners “refused to clean up or secure the site of the [alleged] double homicide”, resulting in rodent infestations and leaving residents with “constant reminders” of what occurred.
Residents have banded together to do the labor necessary to maintain the park, Campbell said, restoring the pool and improving roads.
“They are basically making the place as nice as they can with their own money and labor and hoping this lawsuit changes something,” the attorney said.
Attempts to contact Olive Dell ranch were unsuccessful. In an interview with KTLA, a property manager named in the lawsuit accused tenants of vandalism and not paying rent and utility bills.
