Raleigh City Council members to discuss fate of Dix campus

Raleigh City Council members will hold a meeting Monday morning to discuss the fate of the Dorothea Dix campus, a source familiar with the negotiations told WRAL Friday.

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We have a deal on Dix Park! Press conference tomorrow at noon. #SaveDixPark #NCPOL #ncga

— Duane Hall (@RepDuaneHall) January 12, 2015

The city has been involved in talks for over two years after former Gov. Bev Perdue announced she had a deal to lease the 300-plus acre property.

Wedged between Raleigh's urban core of government and bank buildings, North Carolina State University and long-standing neighborhoods, the bucolic swath of trees and fields is a unique piece of open space in a city that continues to burst its borders. City leaders and private boosters say they would like to develop the campus into a destination park to serve one of the most rapidly growing areas in the state.

Although lawmakers moved to scuttle the Perdue lease in 2013, both sides backed off a full-out legal confrontation. They agreed instead to seek new appraisals of the property and work on a sale. Negotiations began in early 2014 once the appraisals came back.

The city and state have exchanged a number of offers over the property since 2013. Most recently, the city sent a three-page counteroffer to the state in November that tackled some of the toughest sticking points in the negotiations, including who would bear responsibility for environmental problems on the property.