It's a developer's dream: 47 acres of flat land minutes from downtown. It would be easy to build high-rise condominiums, single-family homes or office buildings.

That worries park advocates, who want to keep it as open space. The Friends of Dorothea Dix Park and other groups argue the field could be the equivalent of the Sheep Meadow in New York's Central Park -- a grassy gathering spot. They call the Dix spot The Great Lawn.

A recent state-sponsored panel from the Urban Land Institute proposed swapping part of the big field with N.C. State for land on the northern end of Centennial Campus, a research and business park. But N.C. State has said it's not interested.

Betsy Kane, 32, a city planner who lives in Raleigh, often goes to the field for picnics. She said she didn't have to worry about cars when she took her niece, a toddler, on an outing.

"Her little legs would give out before she got to the edge of that field," she said.