Letter: There’s no reason to rush on Rockhaven

Why the sudden rush to sell and develop Rockhaven? In 2009, the city of Glendale purchased the historic property, the last intact sanitarium in a region built on the sanitarium industry, with great promises of a cultural center, park and new library, to be partially funded by the ground lease money from Trader Joe’s. Now, despite a good economy, that’s all out the window?

Building a first-class park (like we were promised in 2009) is a lengthy process. What’s the hurry to dump Rockhaven? It’s not going anywhere, and it’s not rotting away. The building of Deukmejian Park can be used as an example of building a park slowly. It was purchased in 1989 to save it from development. But it didn’t receive any major renovation until 2004, and today, 26 years after its purchase, it’s still being restored and improved, thanks to grants and community involvement. It has been open to the public that entire time, unlike Rockhaven which remains locked up tight.

I urge the city to slow down on this development craze it’s currently on. We need to be mindful of the recreation needs of future, and probably more crowded generations. Once we hand off Rockhaven to a developer, it’s gone forever.

Mike Lawler
La Crescenta