Report: Cyclist caused fatal accident

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Decisions on Dix: Emptiness costs

Lesson: Maintain empty buildings or eventually they will be torn down.

Case study

Made of masonry and brick in the mid-19th century, state mental hospitals were built to last, but they can quickly decay under the wrong circumstances.

Easley: Put offices on Dix land

Gov. Mike Easley has waded into the tussle over what to do with the undeveloped land on the Dorothea Dix campus.

As part of his 2008 budget released last week, Easley proposed using bond money to build a $173 million office complex for the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The project, if built, would occupy about 25 choice acres of the sprawling campus at the 150-year-old state psychiatric hospital, which is set to close next year.

N.C. law on taking land scrutinized

DURHAM - Bob Morrison was ordered to leave his business, Bob's Service Garage on Alston Avenue, by Jan. 1. The Triangle Transit Authority condemned Morrison's property to make way for a commuter rail station. But Morrison isn't happy with the TTA's offer of $216,000 for his property, so he's waiting for sheriff's deputies to evict him.

"I can't afford to go anywhere," Morrison said. "If I go anywhere, they got to set me out."

Morrison, 57, faces the loss of his business and land and still having to pay what will remain of his $370,000 loan. Both Morrison and his lawyers think the state's eminent domain laws are unfair to property owners; they hope a legislative study committee that meets for the first time today will consider revamping them.

Big voice will join Dix land debate

It's no disaster zone, but Dix Hill will soon get advice from the same experts who told New Orleans and Lower Manhattan how to rebuild.

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.

Developers, state eye Dix land

The fierce debate over closing Dorothea Dix Hospital is long over, but another difficult Dix quandary lies ahead -- what to do with the 335-acre hospital campus.

Developers and real estate brokers muse among themselves about what they could do with so much open land in the heart of Raleigh. Some state officials say it should continue to house state offices. Those who live in nearby neighborhoods want it to remain much as it is today, with open grassy hillsides and tree-lined drives.