A legislative task force decided Thursday to hire the prestigious Urban Land Institute to study the 315-acre property just west of downtown Raleigh.

During a three-day visit in late October, a panel of nationally recognized experts will recommend what to do with the site when the Dorothea Dix state mental hospital closes in 2008.

Similar panels gave advice on rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as well as reusing arenas in Atlanta after the 1996 Olympics.

The future of Dix Hill has vexed lawmakers for five years. Various plans have called for pricey condominiums, state offices, restaurants and shops, a hotel, a botanical garden and a major city park.

But until now, no one has explained how to turn any of those ideas into reality.

The four-member Urban Land Institute panel will include experts on finance, urban planning and local government from around the country. They will give advice on details such as how to run a park or pay for restoration of historic buildings.

The experts will be working professionals who volunteer their time for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group. Their services, estimated to be worth as much as $250,000, will cost the state only about $60,000.

The nonprofit group has not yet chosen the panel members. But Urban Land Institute trustee Trish Healy of Raleigh said that the Dix property would attract volunteers because it is a compelling problem.

"This is 300 acres in the capital of a state, adjacent to downtown and public uses," she told the task force. "This is very interesting intellectual work. We have people standing in line wanting to do this."

It will not be the first time that Dix Hill has been studied.

Last year, the city and the state paid $122,600 to Charlotte-based LandDesign. The urban planning firm came up with proposals for an urban neighborhood and a city park that were not well-received at public hearings.

Four other proposals then came from Raleigh and Wake County planners, park advocates, a group of botanical gardeners and a coalition of historic preservationists.

For now, the state task force hasn't locked onto a specific plan. Several members said they would prefer a major urban park, but they also say that they have to persuade other legislators to foot the bill.

"The less it costs the state, the easier it will be to get through the General Assembly," said Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat.

The Urban Land Institute's advice will come at a critical time for the future of the Dix campus.

Over the next three months, the 11-member task force of lawmakers and Raleigh residents will study the proposals and draw up a plan for the site. They hope to give it to the General Assembly by January, in time for a vote during the next session.

The Urban Land Institute panel will be asked to look at how to organize and finance different options. They could give narrow technical advice, or they could make a bolder statement on what should be done.

Their potential influence makes some observers nervous.

Janis Ramquist, director of the nonprofit Friends of Dorothea Dix Park, has argued that the entire site should be preserved as open space. She questioned whether the experts have experience in designing major city parks.

"The success of it depends on the quality of the panel," she said.

But civic activist Barbara Goodmon, who sits on the legislative task force, said that the panel would be a valuable counterpoint to the developers, state officials and park advocates already arguing over the property.

"Other than that, it's the people with the most money or the biggest mouths who get all the attention," she said.