Camp Paradise, after being a well-known, colorful, and high-profile element of the Santa Cruz downtown scene, may be returning to the headlines after months of silence.

Their current (and this time voluntary) host, Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, is said to be under assault by county bureacrats in an effort to force them to kick out Camp Paradise. Larry Templeton, leader of Camp Paradise, says that if bureacrats won't even let them reside on private church property with the church's permission, then they need to offer an alternative or else CP will create one which the City Council is sure to dislike.

According to Larry, the Church has caved in to threats of heavy fines for building code and land use permit violations to the tune of $15,000 per day and asked CP to leave in 30 days that the church owner may save himself from the burden of these fines.

These violations, reportedly 6 in number and each costing $2,500 per day, are for allowing CP residents to reside on the property without adequate facilities for emergency services, such as cement sidewalks, fire hydrants, and grease traps for the church kitchen Larry says campers dont even use.

Meanwhile, the building which has housed the Santa Cruz Service Corp is to be vacated by this Friday so that demolition can begin, possibly as soon as Monday, for the eventual building of a new homeless shelter. The SCSC was formed to champion a program where homeless campers could legally occupy public parks for a few days or weeks at a time, paying rent in the form of providing cleanup and maintenance services, before moving on.

Camp leader Larry Templeton intends to address the City Council next week, saying that if alternative property isnt offered, other property will instead be taken and occupied by force of numbers.

Washed from their illegal home along the San Lorenzo riverbank last winter, the picturesque 60 person rag-tag band from Camp Paradise wandered and scattered for a few months before a small contingency of 12 settled down on the private property of the Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in nearby Aptos.

Though with the blessings of the pastor/owner of the church and property, camp leader Larry Templeton reported early success in public relations with neighborhood locals, and had even begun to provide neighbors with affordable lawn and garden services.

This contrary to rumors that the pastor had in fact brought in Camp Paradise simply to destroy certain environmentally protected plant life in the wild areas of the property, to facilitate later sale of the property to a developer. No such sale or plan has yet been confirmed.

-Edison Carter