Good evening. My name is Will Hooker and I am a registered landscape architect and a retired professor from NC State where I taught landscape design for over 35 years. I would like to comment on the proposed Master Plan for Dix Park
Thirteen years ago, I was involved with a group lobbying to keep the Dix Hospital Campus as a Park. With the hospital closing, the City was in the process of deciding what to do with the land. Because there was a call to maintain a portion of the land for services to aid the mentally challenged, my group felt that we would be okay for some of those services be kept, with the bulk of the property given over to natural park land.
The City called a public meeting so that citizens could state their desires. The evening of the public meeting there were two microphones set up in the audience for anyone to make a short statement. As I stepped up to the microphone in my line the person in the other line was making his statement.
He stated, “Raleigh needs to devote the entire 306 acres to a park, – no exceptions.”
I was awestruck. It was what my colleagues and I really wanted. When I stepped up to the microphone, my statement was, “I don’t know who that was but he’s saying what’s in my heart – I’m going to follow his vision wherever it leads.” His vision of maintaining the entire campus for a park is still very true. Thank you, Gregory Poole.
The main point that my colleagues and I would like to make tonight is that whatever we do in creating this park, we should follow the vision of respecting and maintaining the natural beauty as our first priority, and relative to the master plan, that means removing any references to development and parking.
One of the main precedents for Dix Park is Central Park in New York City. It does not have roads or parking lots.
It does not have a hotel or private housing and contains no services not intended for park users. For our master plan, we urge the council to remove all references to parking and development from the master plan until further study.
This image on the top shows Central Park in 1864; the image of the bottom is current. In the coming century our city will grow up around Dix Park providing all the services and development needed.
Fredrick Law Olmsted, one of Central Park’s designers, advocated for the park by saying that it was critical for the mental health of the residents of NYC. Our city is growing, the population continues to expand, and the stresses of urban living will only increase. Protecting Dix Park as a peaceful refuge will become ever more coveted and needed. In addition, it will be a significant part of the legacy of Dorothea Dix.
Let’s follow the vision of Gregory Poole and others and commit to respecting and enhancing the natural beauty of Dix Park as our first priority.