A planning firm that helped design N.C. State University's Centennial Campus will lead the effort to draft a redevelopment plan for the Dorothea Dix Hospital campus next door.
The state hired LandDesign, based in Charlotte, to sort out competing visions for the 315-acre Dix campus, which is perched on a hill overlooking downtown Raleigh. The state plans to close Dix when it opens a new mental hospital in Butner in 2007 and must decide what to do with the Dix land and nearly 100 buildings.
"There will be a lot of ideas," said Rhett Crocker, LandDesign's lead planner on the project. "Our role is building consensus."
Crocker spoke Wednesday to a group of legislators and local officials who will oversee the plan. He told them LandDesign will aggressively seek public opinion about the Dix property, hoping to come up with a scheme that will please everyone.
That won't be easy, said state Rep. Jennifer Weiss, a Cary Democrat who is on the Dorothea Dix Campus Master Plan Oversight Committee.
Weiss said even advocates for the mentally ill are divided over what to do with the property. Some would like to see it turned into a park, she said, but others want it sold to the highest bidder and the proceeds used for mental health programs.
"It will be a challenge to make everybody happy," Weiss said.
The master plan will lay out one or more options for reusing the campus, but the final decision will rest with the governor and the General Assembly, said Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat on the committee.
"It's the state's land," Ross said. "And the state is going to have to decide what to do with it."
LandDesign will hold a series of public meetings and workshops starting before the end of the year, Crocker said. So far, no meetings have been scheduled.
Lynn Hoke and Marjorie O'Rorke, members of a citizens group that would like Dix to become a park, were happy to hear Crocker emphasize public involvement.
"It sounded like they're on the right track," said Hoke, who is secretary of Friends of Dorothea Dix Park.
The city and the General Assembly each set aside $100,000 for the Dix master plan. LandDesign was one of 18 firms that sought the contract for the work. Joe Henderson, director of the State Property Office, said the firm's experience with Centennial Campus, a research park that covers more than 1,000 acres, did not tip the decision but didn't hurt, either.
"They've done a good job with Centennial," Henderson said.
