BY ALAN PITTMAN
More Hospital Sprawl?
Eugene action hurts chances
for new hospital downtown.
T
he Eugene City Council took a
step last week toward locating a
new McKenzie-Willamette Hosp-
ital on the edge of the city rather than near
downtown.
The council voted 5-3 to move to allow
McKenzie/Triad to build the new hospital
as a permitted use virtually anywhere in
the city. A public hearing and final vote on
the proposed land use change will be
scheduled later.
“What we want is a hospital in the cen-
tral city and what this says is you can put a
hospital anywhere,” Councilor Bonny
Allowing a hospital anywhere “takes
any of that leverage away” to locate the
hospital in the central city, Bettman said.
By allowing the hospital anywhere,
“the city has no way to encourage good
sites and discourage bad sites,” Wilson
said.
Wilson faulted city Planning Director
Tom Coyle for recommending against
using the city’s zoning regulations to steer
the hospital to the most beneficial site for
the citizens of Eugene. “The point of plan-
ning is to have a vision,” said Wilson.
“Tom Coyle was going back to the 1960s.”
‘What we want is a hospital in the central city and
what this says is you can put a hospital anywhere,’
Councilor Bonny Bettman said.
Bettman said. Bettman voted with
Councilors David Kelly and Betty Taylor
to oppose the regulatory change to allow a
hospital in any residential, office, commer-
cial or industrial zoned area of the city.
“It’s an incredible shift in direction,”
said Jan Wilson of CHOICES, a group lob-
bying for locating a hospital in the central
core of Eugene. “We’ve just thrown the
central core part right out the window,” she
said. “They could put it way out by the air-
port if they wanted.”
Kelly said a big hospital could have a
bad impact on small-scale residential
neighborhoods. “I can just hear the up-
roar.”
“We’re talking about at least a 750,000
square foot facility,” said Bettman. “It re-
ally isn’t appropriate in every single resi-
dential zone in the city.”
Councilor Gary Papé agreed a hospital
would have a major impact. “We’re talking
about, maybe not a 20 ton elephant, but a
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Locating the new hospital on the edge
of town would produce costly, traffic-
snarling urban sprawl, Wilson said. Such
edge development will increase pressure to
expand the growth boundary and produce
big taxpayer costs in new sewers, roads
and other infrastructure, she said. “West
11th would be a mess, 7th would be a mess,
the Beltline would be bumper to
bumper.”
A central location for the hospital
would be much better, Wilson said.
Redeveloping vacant and underused indus-
trial sites near 2nd and Chambers and 7th
and Garfield is one possibility, she said.
Another option would be using part of
the county fairgrounds site for a hospital,
Wilson said. That could require the once a
year county fair to move to a more rural lo-
cation and the conversion of the fair-
grounds buildings into more of a conven-
tion/recreation center with parking
garages.
‘We’re talking about, maybe not a 20 ton elephant,
but a 15 ton elephant moving around.’ – Gary Pape
15 ton elephant moving around.” But Papé
still voted for allowing hospitals in any
neighborhood.
Supporters of a centrally located hospi-
tal had hoped the city would entice
McKenzie’s planned new hospital to a cen-
tral Eugene site by offering a zoning over-
lay that would make hospital siting easy.
But the council voted against such an ap-
proach.
Councilor Scott Meisner said an over-
lay zone approach would be too restrictive.
“I do not want to make it more difficult for
a new hospital to locate here.”
Mayor Jim Torrey agreed the council
shouldn’t restrict the hospital. “There is a
real fear among folks on the east side of the
freeway that we will try to micromanage
the process.”
Downtown hospital supporters said an
overlay would actually simplify locating
the hospital in the central city.
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Wilson said there’s little doubt the new
McKenzie/Triad hospital will locate some-
where in Eugene. Glenwood lacks ade-
quate sewers and is too close to
PeaceHealth, she said. A Glenwood hospi-
tal may also have trouble because it would
be too close to Cottage Grove’s hospital to
get a state-required certificate of need.
Eugene has more than twice the number
of potential hospital customers as
Springfield and makes economic sense for
a new hospital location, according to
Wilson. “No one is going to walk away
from our market.”
“I think they [McKenzie/Triad] realize
they need to be more centrally located than
PeaceHealth and they’ll collect up all the
doctors and all the patients,” Wilson said.
“I’m trusting that McKenzie-Willamette
still has a good enough heart to choose
the right site despite what the council
does.”
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