Vote Looms for Pagan Camp
28 Oct 2001
Vote looms over renewal
By DAWN BORMANN - The Kansas City Star
Harvest is under way in Leavenworth County. Tractors, cows and leaves enrich
the landscape, but it is something altogether different that has dominated
many local conversations lately.
Amid the autumn setting, a dispute rages about a camp that allows nudist
retreats and pagan ceremonies. The issue could be decided today by the
Leavenworth County Commission.
At the center of the controversy is Gaea Retreat Center, on 235th Street
about 10 miles north of Tonganoxie. Since 1992 the camp has operated as a
spiritual, emotional and religious retreat in the heart of Leavenworth
County.
"All we are trying to do is provide a space where people can go and be who
they are without being hassled," said John Pearse, president of Earth Rising
Inc., the nonprofit agency that operates the camp. "As long as what people
are doing is within the law and not interfering with other people's rights
to be who they are, then they should be allowed to do it."
Pearse said the retreat center cannot be defined as a nudist colony or a
pagan camp, although it allows nudity and paganism. Once a year, the
170-acre camp is rented to a nudist group. For that, leaders make no
apologies. However, during most of the season, clothing is optional in
designated areas, including a lake.
Religious rituals of all types are permitted along the trails, in cabins and
elsewhere.
Hidden by trees and natural barriers, the camp is barely noticeable from the
gravel road, camp leaders said.
Yet some neighbors say the camp's presence brings a seasonal headache to
their lives. To them, the traffic, noise and nudity are irritating.
"It's nice to live in a free country, but we feel like their freedom is the
cost of our freedom," said Aaron Hecht, a neighbor.
Hecht said he does not feel comfortable allowing his wife and children near
the family's cattle pastures, where he has seen naked men hiking.
"It's not the kind of groups that we want around our children and around our
community," he said.
Traffic wrecks along the gravel road also are a concern, Hecht said. It is
not uncommon for dust to be kicked up by cars, obscuring other traffic from
the view of motorists.
"There have been numerous ... wrecks," Hecht said. "People aren't used to
driving gravel roads, and it creates a mess."
The arguments will be advanced at 3 p.m. today in the Leavenworth County
Courthouse. The three commissioners will hear arguments on whether to renew
a 10-year special-use permit for the site. The camp needs a special-use
permit because the land is zoned for agricultural use.
A protest petition filed by nearby residents has forced the vote to be
unanimous. Without the approval of all three commissioners, the camp, as it
currently exists, will have to stop operating.
Earlier this month, the Leavenworth County Planning Commission denied the
renewal on a 5-2 vote, even though Planning Director John Zoellner and his
staff recommended renewal.
Zoellner said he was satisfied that camp leaders had met all of the legal
criteria required for the permit. Although gravel, the road is designed to
handle the traffic, and the county plans to pave it within 15 years.
He also said a camp has been operating there for decades. It was a nudist
camp in the 1940s before being taken over by a religious group in 1957.
Religious groups are believed to have occupied the camp until 1992, when
Earth Rising Inc. began operating Gaea Retreat Center.
If the permit is not renewed, the camp operators' only option will be to
file a lawsuit in Leavenworth County District Court, Zoellner said.
Commissioners Joe Daniels Jr., Bob Adams and Donald Navinsky declined this
week to say how they intend to vote.
Pearse said he did not want to think about the prospect of not getting a
permit renewal.
"The idea of losing it is just unimaginable to me," he said. "We have put a
lot of time, a lot of love and a lot of money into (the camp). The
complaints of the neighbors are about differences in values as much as
anything else. It's not possible to legislate moral values and lifestyles
and religions."
To reach Dawn Bormann, call (816) 234-5992 or send e-mail to
dbormann@kcstar.com.
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of retreat camp's
special-use permit
Date: 10/24/01 22:15
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