Norman And State Mental Health Officials Consider Plan For Hospital Property

The City of Norman and the State Department of Mental Health are working with an urban development group to come up with a potential plan for the Griffin Memorial Hospital property.

Some of the buildings on the Griffin Memorial Hospital campus are 100 years old.

“It was previously a small town where they had canneries, a farm and a dairy,” said Susan Connors with the City of Norman.

In the hospital's heyday, more than 3,000 mental health patients received care there.

5/3/2015 Related Story: Norman and State Officials Looking To Relocate Griffin Memorial Hospital

Now, city officials said almost half the property is vacant and the hospital serves fewer than 200.

Taking one look at it and you'll agree -- it's obviously in need of an upgrade.

In the proposed plan for the property developed by the Urban Land Institute, eight facilities would be demolished, three more would be demolished and relocated, two would be re-purposed and four facilities would remain.

All this work supports goals of the mental health department and the city.

The goals were that there would be a mixed community, that recreation would remain a part of it, that we would take care of the drainage that runs across the property, which is fairly major,” Connors said.

The plan presented also shows the possibilities of replacing the rusty and run-down buildings with retail shops or residential properties.

As for the much needed new mental health facility, experts suggested it be built on a piece of property already owned by the state to the east of where the hospital is now.

The next step is for the urban development group to send a final report and that will be within 90 days and then the state can make its decision on what's next.

View the full recommendation.