The City Council called on developers to be imaginative if they want to partner with Glendale to bring new construction to a historic site in North Glendale.
"I want to open it up to anything. Creative minds: let's see what people can tell us," Councilman Dave Weaver said before the council unanimously voted on Tuesday to give developers a shot at proposing a project at Rockhaven, a former women's sanitarium that served patients such as Billie Burke, an actress who played Glinda the Good Witch in "The Wizard of Oz."
Glendale bought the roughly 3.4-acre site in 2008 for $8.25 million to save it from development, but as the city's finances shrank because of the protracted recession — Glendale officials forecast multiple years of deficits — the city plans to open the door to development as an attempt to preserve some of Rockhaven's historic character.
Officials had bought the site originally intending to preserve several historic structures as well as build a new library on the plot, but now the council is open to reviewing residential, commercial and even hotel developments.
