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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Republican senators announced Monday they will no longer try to stop the sale of more than 300 acres of state land to Raleigh to build a regional park, saying their biggest concerns about the pending deal have been addressed by the governor's office.
Gov. Pat McCrory and Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane announced a tentative $52 million agreement in January to sell the site where the old Dorothea Dix mental hospital had operated for more than 150 years. The Raleigh city council signed off on the final deal last Friday. Statewide elected leaders must also approve the sale — the Council of State meets next week.
Leaders of the Senate Health Care Committee had introduced a bill this year that would essentially stop the deal and require the land near downtown Raleigh be sold through the usual state government bid process.
They said the agreement's sale price might be too low. They also were worried proceeds wouldn't go to mental health programs and needed more assurances on how 2,000 state Department of Health and Human Services employees still on the Dix campus would be ultimately relocated. The last Dix patients were moved in 2012. An earlier lease deal orchestrated by then-Gov. Beverly Perdue later that year ultimately got scuttled.
The committee co-chairmen have been assured by McCrory's administration representatives that sale proceeds would be placed in a trust fund for mental health expenses, according to a news release from Senate leader Phil Berger's office. And the administration will work on a long-term plan to relocate DHHS central office at Dix, the release said.
"This action shows a spirit of cooperation between the General Assembly, the administration and the city of Raleigh," the committee co-chairmen said. The House still would have had to sign on to the bill even if the Senate had passed it. House Republicans have been more agreeable to the deal.
As announced in January, the state will get to lease from the city about one-third of the acreage for essentially nothing for up to 10 years or 25 years, depending on the tract. It gives state officials time to find new office space for workers. The city needs to find funds by the end of 2015 to purchase the land.
The "sale will allow the creation of a destination park in our state capital, protects the taxpayers and provides much needed funding for mental health services," McCrory said in statement last Friday after the city council's approval.
McFarlane said late last week the city would borrow money for the sale and it could be brought to voters in a municipal referendum. City boosters have been seeking the property for years, saying a "destination" park like those in New York and Atlanta would boost the quality of life in North Carolina's second-largest city and attract industry.
Senate Republicans led the charge two years ago to block a December 2012 deal between Perdue and Raleigh to lease the acreage to the city for 75 years. Raleigh would have paid $500,000 a year — the amount increasing annually — for a deal worth $68 million. But Republican lawmakers said that cost when adjusted for inflation and other factors would have been equivalent to one-third that amount.
McCrory put the lease on hold in summer 2013 in response to concerns from both House and Senate Republicans. Ensuing negotiations between the governor and the city went on for some time.
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