Mayor Meeker wants the City to set up a development corporation to buy the Dix Hospital site for $40 million. (The money would come from bonds, new taxes and donations.)

Voters just passed a billion dollar school bond. Are they likely to favor another bond so the City can go into the land development business? We have many first-rate builders in Raleigh. Instead of competing with them why shouldn’t the City allow them to develop the land and save the taxpayers the costs of bonds and new taxes? Surely, Raleigh has enough regulations to insure any private development is a benefit to the community.

Taxpayers have already paid $60,000 for a study to help Mayor Meeker plan the development of Dix Hill – but wouldn’t the money have been better spent renovating a city school or paving a street?