Florida Naturist Park residents say Bill Martin has laid siege to their community with demands for fees.
By JAMES THORNER
Published May 2, 2004
HUDSON - In the nudist theology of Bill Martin, Adam and Eve were living life large before the apple and fig leaves.
Then came the fall. Humanity's first couple were condemned to wear clothes. The legacy to their descendents has been a distorted image of nudity that veers between shame and lust.
Martin vows to recapture the original state of grace, with a Christian twist, in his Natura Village. It's a naked community, centered around a water park, that the 65-year-old Quaker wants to build on nearly 240 acres in Hudson.
But in doing so, neighbors say he's resorted to behavior that is less than saintly.
About half the land targeted by Natura is undeveloped pasture and forest, but the rest is an existing nudist spot called Florida Naturist Park.
After seizing control of park management, Martin has threatened the mostly low-income residents with expulsion unless they pay hundreds of dollars in yearly fees.
The result: court battles, hostile picketing and a siege mentality. Folks wonder whether life in their mostly wooded park is a Garden of Eden or a homeowners' hell.
"He's not a Christian," said Michael Thompson, a pony-tailed 66-year-old nudist who fears Martin is trying to displace him and buy his property on the cheap. "His god lives in his wallet."
Using deed restrictions at least 30 years old and written in part by Florida Naturist Park's late owner Ward Gulvin, Martin insists residents be nudists and pay a $500 initiation fee and $200 a year to keep up dirt roads on the property.
The fees are necessary to make the place habitable, Martin said. Roads are so sandy, rutted and overhung with brush that it's doubtful fire trucks could reach all the properties.
Eventually, each property owner would be obliged to pay Pasco County more than $7,000 to pave the roads and connect to water and sewer lines.
"Christians have to operate on sound business grounds, too," Martin said in his defense. "We can't help people with everything. They've got to help themselves, too."
For some residents, lured to Florida Naturist Park's rough-edged but inexpensive rural living, Martin's takeover could mean eviction from their homes. After initially cheering his attempt to clean up the place, residents have soured on a person they label an extortionist.
Neighbors didn't mind when Martin and a business partner bought an undeveloped 115 acres on the outskirts of the existing park a few months ago. Their complaint is with Martin's second contract to buy 60 acres, mostly undeveloped lots interspersed among their homes.
Even though Martin hasn't closed on those 60 acres, the Gulvin family gave Martin power of attorney, as a condition of the contract, to rewrite deed restrictions in his favor.
So empowered, Martin rewrote rules to bind the 30 or so independent property owners in the park who live on a further 60 acres. Fees and nudity clauses were the result.
It's none of Martin's business if people want to live on unkempt sand roads and use well water and septic tanks, Thompson said.
As the owner of seven lots in the park, he estimates Martin could cost him $43,000. And that's not counting the water and sewer hookup charges to the county.
"This is not a top-end park. People won't be impressed if they come in here," Thompson said. "But is that a reason to throw everyone out?"
Martin's lawsuit against Thompson asks the court to decide if the deed restrictions are binding. A second defendant is Ray Cotton, a 61-year-old tattooed former Florida corrections officer who has become one of biggest thorns in Martin's side.
Cotton helped blanket the naturist park with yellow signs, none flattering to Martin and his organization. The signs compare Martin to Osama Bin Laden and Adolf Hitler.
Cotton helped organize a demonstration that blocked Martin's attempt earlier this year to build a gate on Fairwinds Road controlling access to the park.
"There's not a court in the land that will support Martin," Cotton said as he took a break from landscaping his yard late last month.
Angry confrontations are typical when Martin visits the park. He's taken to arranging escorts from sheriff's deputies or private security guards.
Martin alleges a resident named Robert Myer threatened to shoot him and throw his body in a lake. A judge failed to slap a restraining order on Myer after neighbors rallied to his defense.
Until the courts resolve outstanding issues - Martin expects it will take two years to disentangle the mess - he plans to proceed with development on the 115 acres north and west of the existing park.
Martin's partner on the project is west Pasco developer Mike Boyce, who created the River Ridge development. Martin plans to sell the undeveloped part of the property to Boyce.
With the addition of the acreage in the existing naturist park, Martin hopes to rezone the property for 550 homes, a water park and 78 RV spaces.
Old residents such as Cotton and Thompson won't be welcome at the new park. Unless, of course, they pay the road fees and another $5,000 to become members of Martin's nudist resort. Martin plans to block the old park from the new with a chain link fence.
"It's going to take a fair amount of court action," Martin said. "Basically we'll fence them off."
Martin's a Quaker who views nudism as a return to godliness. He touts socializing naked as cure for many social ills, including depression and addiction to pornography.
"Body shame is an indicator of our alienation from God, self, and others; it is a bondage from Hell, and according to the Bible a direct result of Satan's deception," reads a Martin-sponsored Web site.
But in Martin's view, some of Pasco's upscale nudist resorts aren't the antidote. Hard drinking, lingerie and sensuality are rampant, he says.
He envisions Natura Village as a return to a more innocent, family-oriented breed of nudism. His model is Europe, where social nudity is less sensational.
Beer and wine, but not liquor, will be sold in his clubhouse. Genital piercing and risque tattoos will be discouraged, if not banned outright. Nightlife isn't important to him, Martin said. He goes to bed at 9 p.m.
"We're going after a totally different group, a group that doesn't want a sexual atmosphere," Martin said.
The key to Natura's success is finding straight-laced nudists to drop deposits on lots there. Nothing's guaranteed. The contract with Boyce allows the creation of a non-nudist subdivision should the nudism market tank.
If the current residents buy into his philosophy, they are welcome, Martin said. Racists and criminals can say goodbye. He said some grumbled when he removed decades-old language from the deeds that barred black people from owning in the park.
"We may let them stay if they're not offensive to other people," Martin said of Cotton and the others. "We've got to live with what we've got there."
Neighbors insist Natura uses Christianity to mask strong-armed business practices. Martin demonizes them - including labeling them Ku Klux Klan sympathizers - to convince himself his tactics are kosher, residents said.
"If you are a Christian, and a person needs help, you don't kick him in the groin to get his wallet to jump out of his back pocket," Thompson said.
"He wants to run everybody out of here," Cotton adds.
But Martin questions why anyone would want to live in an unsanitary park and refuse to pay to bring it up to snuff.
Said Martin: "These people seem to think somebody else has to pay their bills."
