RALEIGH -- A group of North Carolina business and political leaders are resurrecting their efforts to have the state's 306-acre Dorothea Dix property turned into a large urban park.
"We've got one chance to save that land," said Gregory Poole, the namesake of Gregory Poole Equipment Co., a large construction supply company in the state. "It's a gem."
The comments were made Thursday morning when Poole and Jim Goodmon, owner of Capital Broadcasting Company and local television station WRAL-TV, sat down with the News & Observer's editorial board.
The group wants N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue to declare the Dix property a park district, a move that would prevent it from being considered for sale to private developers, Poole said. They estimate it could take up to 25 years for the park to be planned and finished.
The land could be best used by creating a destination park, and the Dix Visionaries are prepared to lead an effort to raise the $1.5 to $2 million needed to create a master plan for the wooded and scenic parcel of land located southwest of Raleigh's downtown, Poole and Goodmon said.
The group is not in favor of usiing part of the state-owned land for muolti-use development, a proposal that other groups have put forward to the state.
Perdue has no immediate plans to wade into the issue, and is concentrating on the nearly-complete closure of Dorothea Dix Hospital by December, according to Mark Johnson, a spokesman for her office. Perdue's office could immediately comment on the request to Dix Visionaries to have Perdue issue an executive order declaring the land a park district.
The Dix Hospital is one of four state-run psychiatric hospitals and has been scheduled for closure for years, with plans to transfer services to the newly-built Central Regional Hospital in Butner.
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Lanier Cansler informed the more than 800 hospital staff workers Tuesday that the state wants to shut down most of the campus' medical facilities by the end of the year, moving all but one minimum security forensic unit and a child outpatient unit to Butner.
More than 1,000 DHHS administrative staff will remain on the property.
