Editorial: Creative thinking needed for Rockhaven site

Historic preservationists and advocates for open spaces were heard this week by the City Council, which voted to expand its application process for bringing back to life property that was long home to the former Rockhaven Sanitarium.

Now it’s time for creative thinkers to take the council up on its offer to look beyond establishing a boutique shopping center, rehabbing the buildings on the Honolulu Avenue campus for use as a private mental-health facility, or adding residential units such as a 38-townhome project.

We agree with Joanna Linkchorst, president of Friends of Rockhaven, who told the council Tuesday that the 1920s-era former mental health haven for women deserves to be protected. She asked them to seek and approve a proposal for the property “that offers the most open space, the most historic preservation and the most public access, not the most financial return.”

The locally cherished 3.3-acre property is attractive, quiet and its existing buildings offer great potential. But, as Mayor Paul Devine and Councilwoman Laura Friedman pointed out during this week’s hearing on the subject, they are also deteriorating. In order to save them, the city, which paid $8 million in 2008 to save Rockhaven from being razed by developers, must approve some sort of rehabilitation project or they’ll simply go to ruin.

So, we urge all with creative ideas and the wherewithal to apply for a unique and locally-welcomed use of the property to do so by the July 14 deadline.