By Julie BUTCHER

It is time – again – to demonstrate to the City of Glendale that the communities of the Crescenta Valley care deeply about the future and preservation of Rockhaven by showing up at a community outreach meeting organized by the city and its consultants.

The meeting is set for Wednesday, July 10 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Montrose-Crescenta Library at 2465 Honolulu Ave. On the agenda is hearing plans from the SWA consultants to seek community input on plans to convert the Pines Cottage to a museum and overall plans to upgrade the property to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) so it is fully accessible to the public.

Next on the agenda is a question-and-answer period, followed by the opportunity for community members to share their visions for the property.

On Oct. 28, 2021, Community Development Director Bradley Calvert summed up for the Glendale City Council background history: “Rockhaven opened in 1923 as a private women’s mental health facility that provided specialized care in beautiful, gated surroundings … one of a handful, perhaps three now, left in the county. It has made its way onto the national historical register. The city bought the property in 2008 for $8.25 million.

“The site has been in ‘mothballs’ for 15 years lacking more permanent safeguards to protect the integrity of those structures. To ready it for ‘limited public use’ will cost an estimated $3.2 million.”

When the city purchased the property in 2008, its stated intent was to build a public park to celebrate and honor the unique history of the special place. Over the years since, the city has explored numerous proposals for development. All of them have failed. In February 2016, the site was being considered for “adaptive reuse” and later that year as a mental health facility or a shopping center. In 2019 Glendale cut ties with Gangi Development after two years of work. In July 2021, State Senator Anthony Portantino helped secure $8 million in state funds to turn the site into the Rockhaven Mental Health History Museum for “the City of Glendale to renovate and preserve the historic Rockhaven property for the public to enjoy and appreciate as a museum.” The museum must be opened by February 2026 to take advantage of the state grant.

At its June 20 meeting, Glendale’s Historic Preservation Commission heard from the city’s historic preservation planner Jay Platt on details about the July 10 meeting. The purpose of that meeting is two-fold. First is to share what the project team has been looking at regarding the determination that the Pines Cottage would be best suited for use as the museum. Platt emphasized that no decisions have been made. Secondly, SWA consultants have prepared a full ADA accessibility plan for the entire site, utilizing funding from the state grant. Once the site is accessible, it will be open to the public. What happens to the rest of the campus is uncertain, Platt reported.

The question-and-answer portion of the meeting will give the public the chance to get answers to the myriad questions that remain outstanding. Then there will be time for visioning, to understand the hopes and dreams and thoughts of the community for the future of Rockhaven.

The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) is expected to review the immediate plans on July 18; the recommendations of staff and the HPC will then go to the full council, likely in August.

Platt told the HPC that these plans are moving along “fairly quickly” due to the timelines associated with the grant and that there would “definitely be future community meetings.” A commissioner noted that as a result of recent commissioner visits to Rockhaven, the determination has been made to preserve the Nurses Cottage, which has been identified as a contributing historic resource.

HPC commissioner Cathey Jurca weighed in on the overall plans.

“Thinking about the future of Rockhaven and the role housing people might play there because it was a medical and rehabilitation facility that housed people and was dedicated to women who needed help,” she said. “I know that prospect [of developing the property] has been often controversial with the local community; I don’t know what the city has planned for the open space and I don’t know the degree to which development there – hopefully not a five-story building – could be leveraged against the money that’s needed for the preservation. My concern is that one tenant or multiple tenants with the funds to do this – because it’s not Glendale [that will pay for it] – I would like housing to not be written out.”

Platt responded, “I don’t think [housing] ever has been.”

There have been multiple proposals for utilizing the existing buildings and for new construction, he explained. For instance, the idea of using the site as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility is “a perfect reuse in the spirit of Agnes Richards.”

Community members raised concerns about these ideas. The city contemplated moving the Montrose Library to Rockhaven, both when the city first purchased the property and more recently when considering using existing buildings – but that “didn’t fly in terms of how libraries work these days.”

“The city is going to go on searching for a user, but we expect that someone is going to have to provide the funding that is going to help restore the site and help maintain it on an ongoing basis, whether it’s educational – which would be a great use, lends itself so nicely – the commission has been through this before,” Platt said concluding that there would likely be another round of RFPs or RFQs seeking proposals for developing “this extraordinary property.”

“It may sound small, but the neighbors who live on Hermosa Avenue are wondering why public access is planned for their street solely, as parking is reconfigured on Honolulu Avenue and more business is encouraged in the area,” observed Friends of Rockhaven president Joanna Linkchorst.

Why was it necessary for the city to hire a museum consultant? How much of the $8 million has been spent? Is a park any part of the city’s thinking? These were some of the questions asked with several other questions remaining unanswered.

The Friends of Rockhaven have been advocating for preservation of the Rockhaven property as a public treasure since the inception of the non-profit. Its stated mission is to “work with the City of Glendale to rehabilitate Rockhaven and open it as a public park and community center.”

In a recent newsletter, the Friends of Rockhaven noted that it is “interesting that the meeting will be led by the Economic Development team and the director of Community Development should be there. I hope the director of the Community Services and Parks Dept. will be there since they are the department operating the property and it was bought in 2008 to be a park. They seem to still be trying to monetize our park.

“The Friends of Rockhaven have always hoped to have the historic building filled with programs that focus on healing. We have interest from the National Alliance for Mental Illness, the Glendale Arts Alliance, the Southern California Medical Museum, yoga teachers, a female restauranteur and all sorts of people who want to continue wellness and healing for everyone.

“We keep hearing their plans that would ‘honor Agnes Richards,’ but Agnes was a giver,” said Linkchorst. “Her focus on healing was being found by being outside and active in award-winning gardens.”

Linkchorst emphasized the importance of showing up for this meeting to demonstrate the continuing commitment of the Crescenta Valley community for the future of Rockhaven.