CARY - The debate over use of the Dix Hospital property as an urban park for Raleigh requires a vision for the future with a long-term perspective, and cannot be defined in dollars and cents alone. Those citizens pushing for an urban park remind me of a similar circumstance not that long ago in Cary, when the need for an urban park seemed almost absurd.

In 1979, Cary was a town of about 21,000 people that had small neighborhood parks which were adequate for its needs at the time. The town's recreation and planning department directors came to the Town Council with a proposal that the town purchase a tract of land, including a large lake, to the west of town where there were no large subdivisions and there was no apparent need for a park in the future. In fact, there were mainly tumbledown tobacco barns and cows in the area.

The planners insisted that the town would grow to a population of more than 100,000 and that the land would no longer be available at a price the town could afford if it delayed. The land then cost about $2,500 per acre -- today it would cost about $100,000 or more per acre.

I was a young Town Council member then and had some real concerns about whether the voters would approve a bond issue to pay for the land purchase and the development of a metro park. Cary was a small town with a primarily residential tax base. The Cary Towne Center was a brand-new shopping center and there were few offices or other non-residential taxpayers.

Yet the council had a tradition of listening carefully to its planners' recommendations, and the members agreed to go forward with the land purchase and a recreation bond referendum.

Today, Fred G. Bond Metro Park is a beautiful urban park containing 310 acres with open spaces, trails, boating, sports fields, shelters and other amenities, including a community center and the Cary Senior Center. Nearby are the massive Prestonwood development and golf courses, shopping centers, churches, offices, major thoroughfares and subdivisions stretching to the west and crossing into Chatham County -- all in the Cary town limits.

Raleigh has a strong tradition of urban planning. Those supporters advocating using the Dix land to develop an exceptional urban park remind me of those planners in Cary in 1979 who had the vision to see the possibilities for meeting the future needs of a growing municipality.

Twenty-something years from now, with the benefit of hindsight, it will be obvious and unquestioned that the best possible use of the Dix land was for a significant central park. Raleigh should not pass up its unique opportunity to create a treasure for its citizens that has the potential to contribute perpetually to its quality of life in a most meaningful way.

(Charles H. Montgomery served on the Cary Town Council and also as a Wake County commissioner.)