Dorothea Dix Property

[Gard]

I'd like to see some of the old buildings converted into a medical museum of sorts. NC, in particular the Triangle, has a rich medical history. We have numerous bio-medical companies here, two scools with a great reputation in pharmacy world, a school with world-wide recognition for its vetinary program and on and on. A musuem would be a great partnerhip opportunity between the various levels of government, the schools, hospitals, and area businesses involved in the medical field.

[Jones_]

Museums fit well with parks too as shown by the NCMA. The current NC museum of History needs an annex, and you could move medical/mental health and civil war stuff out here too (since Sherman parked a whole corps (20,000 troops) here for a month in April 1865). That might help get bipartisan support for a Raleigh bond for the remaining part to be purchased by the City for open space.

[Euphorius]

Looks like Bev Perdue is trying to make this happen before she leaves office. http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/11/27/2508882/perdue-drafting-plan-to-convert.html

[orulz]

Hope it makes it through in time.

Several puzzle pieces will have to come together quickly to make this happen

1. DHHS relocation/consolidation. The state of NC put out a RFP this summer. They got ten responses. One interesting proposal is Kane Realty; wonder if he's looking to plunk more office space down at North Hills. IMO a distant second is Park Center which would at least involve reusing a mostly vacant complex at NC54 & Davis. Everything else seems to be greenfield development.
   
2. Negotiate a lease and price with the City of Raleigh
   
3. All of this before January 5th!
   

[Green_man]

What I'd like to see:

• Keep the big field on the hill exactly as it is.
• Keep the farmers market as is.
• Add a single track rail line alongside the existing railroad for a trolley line to connect to Union Station.  Have 3 stops in the park:  north edge, center, and at farmers market.  Only one trolley vehicle needed to just go back and forth every hour or so.
• Develop a medium-density, mixed-use town center bounded by Ruggles, Biggs, and Umstead Drives by renovating most of the existing buildings there and keeping focus on open spaces and plazas between the buildings.
• Put a 'Top Golf' driving range where the soccer fields are now.
• Rest of park is open spaces with a few fields for baseball & soccer and a few courts for tennis & basketball & beach volleyball.  Keep as many trees as possible.  Restrict vehicles to select roads - most paths for peds and bikes only.
• Allow urban development in the area to the West of Biggs Dr and Barbour Dr.

[Green_man]

The NC Council of State approved an agreement this morning to lease the land to the City of Raleigh for a park.  Raleigh is set to meet this afternoon to officially approve their part of the agreement.  I wonder the timeline for discussions on the park's design and if there will be a public comment phase or if this means that the Dix Visionaries plan is a go.

 

The State will lease back the buildings it currently occupies until the new DHHS campus is built - so it would seem that nothing will change for the immediate future (late 2014 at the earliest?).  Separate topic, but it would be nice if they go ahead and select a site for the DHHS campus so that the park planning can proceed full steam.  [i'd like to see DHHS in a series of midrises near the other state buildings downtown or maybe incorporated into the North Hills East development.]

[NCMike1981]

Raleigh city council approved the lease 7-1 so it looks like the campus will become a park! I personally think this will be nice to have, especially as the decades pass and Raleigh becomes more and more populous. If this is done up properly it could be a really nice park.

[DanRNC]

If DHHS wants to serve the public, send it out to the burbs where the majority of the populace is. Isn't that the argument for not building anything downtown we hear over and over again? 

[Green_man]

Wellllll, we are reminded how backwards our state government is...  State of NC says deal is off and takes their ball and goes home.

 

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/21/2768182/senate-committee-votes-to-revoke.html

[Green_man]

https://trianglewiki.org/Save_Dorothea_Dix_Park/

 

If you agree that we should dedicate this land for a world-class park instead of more sprawl development, then sign the petition and forward on.

 

There's also a meeting this afternoon for citizens to express their opinions.  I believe the meeting location has been changed to the Legislative Building, but I'm not sure where I saw that.

[Brendan]

WRAL says:

 

The hearing is scheduled for 4 p.m. in Room 643 of the Legislative Office Building, 300 N. Salisbury St. Speakers must register before 11 a.m. by sending an email with their name and topic for discussion to [email protected] or by calling 919-715-6400.

 

http://www.wral.com/public-hearing-set-on-wake-schools-bills-dix-land-deal/12263823/

 

Knowing this legislature, I'd be surprised if they aren't fracking on the site in the next month.  Jk, sort of.

 

 

 

 

https://trianglewiki.org/Save_Dorothea_Dix_Park/

 

If you agree that we should dedicate this land for a world-class park instead of more sprawl development, then sign the petition and forward on.

 

There's also a meeting this afternoon for citizens to express their opinions.  I believe the meeting location has been changed to the Legislative Building, but I'm not sure where I saw that.

[NCMike1981]

At this point I think the legislature is pretty much going to do whatever they have on their agenda no matter what. They are even considering setting up a special judicial commitee b/c they anticipate Raleigh filing a lawsuit, and instead of it going through the standard channels of being heard by a Wake County circuit judge the GOP is planning on appointing a judge from Eastern NC, Western NC and a judge from Wake County. In other words the chances of a fair trial are slim. Did you hear they are even considering shutting down two state run universities in NC?! Yet they complain about an untrained workforce *sigh* Sorry I digress, I'm just not pleased with where state govt has been heading the last several years...

[ctl]

Wake Tech handles more students than NCSU and UNC-CH combined, and increasingly students who graduate from the UNC System are doing their first two years at a less expensive, more accessible community college. Therefore I'm fine with diverting some money from the UNC system to the Community College System.

 

In the beginning, Wake Tech was run by Wake County schools. . . so it was located in the county countryside because the Raleigh city and county school systems were separate at the time.

 

The trial court for a lawsuit by the city, if there is one, doesn't matter much because inevitably the loser will take it to the NC Court of Appeals. 

[orulz]

Lately, the House and gov. McCrory seem to have taken a somewhat more concilatory approach than the Senate did. They still holding that Raleigh needs to pay more, and demand that some space be set aside for DHHS. But in contrast with the Senate, the new bill offers a year in which to renegotiate before the lease dissolves, and also puts part or all of the Gov. Morehead School, which offers interesting potential as a connector between Dix and Pullen parks, on the table (Though this brings the future of the school into the equation as well.)

 

It sounds likely that Raleigh will go along with this approach, so they may not bring a lawsuit yet, but the city is also not ready to admit that their current lease is invalid either, so if the negotiations don't go well then they may pull out that card at a later date. At least we have a carrot now, though, not just a stick.

[Euphorius]

I think we can all see what is going on here. The state has been leaning toward selling to developers since the decision was made to close the hospital. Now McCrory is saying there isn't a better place for DHHS, and that they need to keep 64 acres to keep DHHS there. I call BS. They are trying to play the city. Once the city comes in and cleans up all the pollution and creates a park, the state will decide there is a better place for DHHS after all, and that prime land on top of the hill will be sold to developers.

 

 http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04/09/3771144/nc-rejects-38-million-bid-for.html

[DanRNC]

Just pull the offer and wait for the next administration. No way this property is worth $52 million. We know what cheapskates NC developers are.

[ctl]

Just pull the offer and wait for the next administration. 

 

As much as I'd like to see change in both the governor's office and the legislative building, I can't assume that it will happen anytime soon. If the City unilaterally quits negotiating, there is a risk that the state will find a private-sector buyer for the land that, for all practical purposes, it has now publicly declared as surplus. 

[DanRNC]

I guarantee there will be no buyer at that price, especially with remediation. Just another idiotic NC pissing contest. 

[NCMike1981]

I just can't imagine this grand central park that would be a tourist attraction for not only the city but the region having 64 acres worth of state administrative office buildings sitting right in the middle of it....

[ctl]

I agree that no private developer would pay the state's current price plus remediation. However, if the City discontinues negotiating and the standstill agreement expires -- it had a one-year term -- the state would then be free to accept a lesser offer from another party. That's why the City really cannot disengage at this point. 

Edited April 11, 2014 by ctl

[Jones_]

Anyone have a delineation of the exact 64 acres? I know the State's buildings are in it, but I am guessing it includes all the flat buildable areas heading towards Centennial Parkway...? I would be willing to bet a "potential" developer or two already worked out the parts they'd need...

[orulz]

NCSU already owns the whole western edge of what was formerly Dix, immediately to the east of Centennial Parkway. They call it the Spring Hill precinct. The current master plan for the area is pretty vague. My guess is that if they were going to build it now, they would fill it it with more of the same that already fills Centennial Campus - gleaming but bland complexes like Venture, Alliance, or Partners with little in the way of residential or retail.

 

DHHS is spread out all over the campus in basically every building on the campus except the McBryde hospital building. No idea what 64 acres they want to keep, though.

[Green_man]

The worst part of this to me is that the State is essentially killing the project for the City of Raleigh for at least a decade or more since they are making it so hard just to buy the land.  I can't even imagine how much it would cost for the City to design and construct the new park features.  I thought even paying $32 million for the land was going to be tough to make it work.  Now looks like we'll have to pay more for the land, more for the remediation, and then for the planning and construction.  Just seems too daunting for a city that chases its tails over reversed house construction permits, dogs in parks, feeding the homeless, road race routes, etc.

 

I've kinda resigned to the fact that the only "park" we'll have at Dix for the next 15-20 years will be the way it is now.  Which isn't bad, but just not fulfilling its potential.

[ctl]

NCSU already owns the whole western edge of what was formerly Dix, immediately to the east of Centennial Parkway. 

 

The Dix property peaked at 2354 acres in the 1970s. A total of 955 acres were transferred to NCSU between 1984 and 2001; a total of 1033 acres were allocated to NCDA between 1985 and 1992, including what became the Farmers Market site in 1991.

[Jones_]

Is that "A" administration or agriculture ? Its fairly easy to spot the NCSU lands but those other 1033....what are they now?