Meeting on September 20, 2002

DixCP Meeting on Friday, September 20th, at 6:00 PM.  Five members of the DixCP met at Cup-S-Joe's in Mission Valley. Present were Joseph Huberman, Chair, Bill Flournoy, Michael Holmes, Sam Olin and Will Hooker.

The agenda was to report on the Spring Hill Precinct, the 130 acres of the Dorothea Dix Campus that NC State now controls, to determine which, if any, areas of the Dix Campus that we would like to see included in the State's Million Acre Initiative, and to determine an action plan to begin this process.

Joseph and Will reported on the Spring Hill Precinct meetings, of which there have been two since our last DixCP meeting. At the first meeting: 

bullet James Brantley Raleigh City Planning, reported on the City's plans and thoughts for the area, which he admitted are very outdated. 
bullet Terry Hatcher, head of Property and Construction for the Department of Health and Human Services, reported on the plans for putting a 435 bed regional hospital in "The Field," which is on Barbour just north of the Farmer's Market. 
bullet Kent Yelverton, head of NCDA's Property and Construction Divison, reported on plans for the Farmer's Market area. An organization known as the Food Collaborative, which collects and distributes un-used food to soup kitchens and other similar charity organizations, is planning on building a warehouse and distribution center on the SW corner of Barbour and Blair Drives. 
bullet Bob Geolas, the NC State Centennial Campus Coordinator, reported on the mission of that campus, of which this campus will be a contiguous part. 
bullet Art Wesche, head of real estate and construction for the Catholic Diocese, report that their plans for development are on hold owing to the poor economy, but that housing of some sort would go on their 40+ acres, with one spot held for a Catholic Student Center. 
bullet Michael Harwood, the NC State architect overviewed NCSU's position and Abie Harris and Brad Davis, of Land Design, the landscape architectural consultants, gave their physical analytical information for the Spring Hill site. A tour followed the presentations by these members.

At the second meeting: 

bullet Land Design presented their updated analytical information, and also their schematic design for the area. In this, they stated that they have a "gentler" design for the Spring Hill Precinct than they do for Centennial Campus. They did report that they have three areas which show 3/4 million sq. ft. of footprints, and represent 1.6 million sq. ft. of enclosed space, with parking for 4000 cars, 1/2 of which will be on the surface and 1/2 of which will be in structured affairs. 
bullet Larry Meisner, of Kimley-Horn & Assoc., the traffic engineers, gave their estimates for anticipated traffic counts for the facilities planned by NC State. It seemed to be quite light and reasonable, with 17000+ trips per day being generated, but this did not include the traffic from either Centennial Campus nor that which would be generated from the regional hospital, if it is built on the Dix Campus.

It was also noted by Will Hooker that there is a movement afoot at NC State, which is just in the brainstorming stages now, wherein a national institute for sustainable communities, a multi-university collaborative, would be set up at NC State, and that the land that is being looked at for this center is the Spring Hill Precinct. This would seem ideal, since one of the tentative goals listed by DixCP members was that of a sustainable education center.

Joseph Huberman then distributed maps that he had coded for the area showing who had what responsibilities. Off of these, we then prioritized the land on the Dix Campus that we would like to have added to the Million Acre Initiative. This included in the first priority group the land along Rocky Branch and the greenway. As well as "The Field" where the new hospital is planned only if the decision is made NOT to locate the regional facility here.  We would also like the block of large trees made into a park in association with an amphitheater adjacent to the Kirby Neighborhood.  Finally, we would like to see protection for the remaining historic neighborhood overlooking Rocky Branch.

Land Use Plan from our Sept. 20, 2002 meeting
Land Use Plan from our September 20, 2002 Meeting (Click for larger picture)

 

We then discussed the priorities for action items. Bill Flournoy was a big help here, with his knowledge of the workings of City Government. 

  1. Joseph will see Marc deBree, the DNR person assigned to the Million Acre Initiative. 
  2. After Joseph's meeting with Marc deBree, he will try to get another meeting with Mr. deBree and his boss, Richard Rogers, to understand the political realities and recommendations for going foward. Initiative. 
  3. Will will contact Rene Gledhill-Early, who is with the Department of Cultural Resources, in the Historic Preservation Office, to try to obtain historic references and/or images of the original Dix Hospital; especially photos of the hospital set up on Dix Hill, the first priority property that we want on the Million Acre. 
  4. Will will get up with Benson Kirkman to try to get advice on how to go about approaching the administration at Dix Hospital for getting their buy-in on turning part of their property over to the Million Acre Initiative. 
  5. We will approach the Dix Campus administrators.

Respectfully submitted, Will Hooker