TAMWORTH — The owners of a nudist ranch on a back road of Stone Mills Township say they are worried an escalating dispute with neighbours could threaten the future of their business.

Yvonne Gibson and her husband, Hector Gravelle, bought their 40-hectare property on Carroll Road about seven years ago and since 2012 have operated Freedom Fields Naturist Ranch.

Last year the couple hosted Hyperborea, a four-day arts festival during the May long weekend designed around the principles of the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada.

Two things came out of that event that are still resonating in the township.

First, as part of the planning for last year’s event, Gibson and Gravelle had to take steps to stop cows from a neighbouring farm from roaming onto their property.

Then, after the arts event, the couple applied to have their property rezoned from rural to commercial in order to allow a campsite.

“We do want to grow a little bit, but we don’t want a big resort,” Gibson said in an inteview on Tuesday morning, adding they plan to have about 10 trailers in the wooded area at the back of their land.

On Monday night, Stone Mills Township council voted unanimously to deny an event permit for the second edition of the Hyperborea event planned for Freedom Fields next month.

Instead, the township approved a permit to hold the event on a township-owned field on Doyle Road, adjacent to the Camden East waste site.

Gibson and Gravelle said Tuesday they are resigned to the fact that the event won’t be coming back to their property this year, but Gibson said that having children at Hyperborea conflicted with their philosophy of operating an adults-only nudist retreat.

But it was when tickets and fines started being issued last year that relations with the neighbours really started to deteriorate.

Tickets were issued to the owner of the roaming cows and tickets against other neighbours for trespassing started getting handed out.

Complaints about the ranch began being filed. One neighbour said someone on the ranch fired a gun at them, something Gibson and Gravelle deny.

“We’re nudists. Where are we packing?” Gibson said.

“We feel like we are being targeted.”

The conflicts — over the rezoning application, over Hyperborea and with the neighbours — have had an effect on the couple’s bed and breakfast business.

“We have lost a lot of money because of this,” Gibson said.

“We usually have people here, a couple of couples, every two weeks,” Gravelle said. “We haven’t had one couple stay in the house this year. That’s a lot of income.”

Township Reeve Eric Smith said council’s decision Monday night to move the Hyperborea event was, in part, an effort to remove a source of conflict between neighbours.

“There’s bad blood out there, I’ll tell you that right now,” Smith said. “There is bad blood out there and I don’t want to see something happen there.

“If someone accuses you of shooting at somebody, well, that’s pretty serious.”

Smith said that, in his opinion, nudity should not influence Freedom Fields’ rezoning application.

While the proposed campsite is in a wooded area near the back of the property, there is a road.

Smith admitted that most of the proposed campground is “out of site,” but people go to the area out of curiosity. A road allowance that runs along the north side of the property makes things more complicated, he added.

Nevertheless, Gibson and Gravelle have the right to do what they want with their own property, Smith said.

“What they do on their own property is their own business,” he said.

Smith said he expects the losing side of next week’s council vote will appeal the decision.

elferguson@postmedia.com