McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center is continuing with plans to relocate from its current Springfield location and build a new $225 million hospital in north Eugene despite opposition and a vote of dissent from local neighbors.
McKenzie-Willamette contracted with property owners to purchase 42 acres of land on the RiverRidge Golf Complex, located north of Ayres Road on the west side of North Delta Highway. The hospital considered more than 30 different sites for the new hospital before choosing to build on the site, known as Delta Ridge. If the new hospital is built, McKenzie-Willamette will replace Sacred Heart Medical Center as Eugene’s main full-service hospital because of Sacred Heart’s concurrent plans to relocate to Springfield from its location on Hilyard Street.
Plans for the new McKenzie-Willamette site include the construction of a 423,000-square-foot hospital, a proposed 100,000-square-foot medical office building and parking. The new hospital will provide 148 hospital beds, 34 beds more than its current hospital, and additional medical services. Rosie Pryor, director of marketing and planning for McKenzie-Willamette, said McKenzie-Willamette hasn’t decided whether it will maintain services at its Springfield hospital, which has existed since 1955.
In order for McKenzie-Willamette to build on the new site, the area has to be re-designated as commercial use rather than low-density residential. The hospital submitted applications to the city on April 19 that involve amendments to the Metro Plan and the Willakenzie Area Plan, which are used to guide zoning and development in Eugene and Springfield. If the applications are approved by the Eugene City Council and the Eugene Planning Commission within the 120 day clock required to render a decision, the area will be rezoned to commercial and McKenzie-Willamette will be able to apply for a conditional use permit to build on the site.
“The challenge that we have in looking for a place to build is that there isn’t anything out there that’s zoned ‘hospital,’” Pryor said. “No matter where we might buy property or be successful in buying property, it’s not going to be zoned for hospital use.”
McKenzie-Willamette’s choice of location comes with concerns about accessibility because of its closeness to the Delta Highway, Green Acres Road and Beltline Road, which are known for heavy traffic congestion. As part of the application process, Portland-based Group Mackenzie conducted a traffic analysis that found McKenzie-Willamette would add 4 percent more traffic to surrounding roads. The analysis recommended that the hospital fund a $5 million package to mitigate the traffic impact through improvements to the streets, such as installing traffic signals at intersections and various improvements to the highways to improve traffic flow.
The plans to rezone the area for the hospital, as well as the potential number of problems with the site, have drawn opposition from local residents in the surrounding neighborhood and from residents throughout Eugene. The leading group North Delta Neighbors opposes rezoning the neighborhood to commercial use to allow the hospital to build on the site. Co-founder Ann Simas said the group started with four members, but she now has about 500 members on her mailing list, including people from outside the immediate neighborhood. She said many members from outside the neighborhood joined because they opposed the hospital building on the north side of the river.
“We have so much population to the west and southwest and south of the city, why do we have two hospitals on the north side of the river?” Simas said. “You have to go over a lot of bridges to get over there, and we all know how congested they get.”
Simas said she is not opposed to the hospital building at a new site, but she is opposed to the hospital’s location and having to amend the Metro Plan and Willakenzie Plan to accommodate the hospital at a detriment to nearby neighbors.
“Ideally, I think if they could find a location for the hospital that already has a commercial zoning, then that should make everybody happy,” Simas said.
Pryor said the hospital spent three years looking for a new site throughout Eugene, including downtown properties identified by the City Council, but many of the sites were unavailable for purchase or there were other problems with building on them.
“I think it’s possible that people feel we didn’t try hard enough to find a site south of the river or out west, and that’s simply not true,” Pryor said. “In the final analysis, what it came down to is that the 42 acres at RiverRidge are for sale.”
Simas said the hospital will bring crime overflow into the neighborhood, as well as a major increase in traffic on the already congested roads. She said the traffic analysis conducted by Group Mackenzie, which includes projections for 2010 and 2025, seems to drastically underestimate the traffic problems and that the proposed mitigation do not seem to fix anything.
Rezoning opponents won a victory at an April 27 meeting with the Cal Young Neighborhood Association, which encompasses the new hospital site, where participating residents voted 194-8 against the hospital and the plans to rezone the area. McKenzie-Willamette CEO Roy Orr said the hospital has a reputation for being a good neighbor and would contribute $3 million in property taxes a year, but residents still opposed the hospital. Out of the limited 10 speakers, eight spoke out against the hospital, citing concerns about further commercial development and how the hospital would negatively affect the area.
Pryor said McKenzie-Willamette plans to continue with the project, despite the vote. She said she was not surprised by the vote because she had heard all of the neighbor’s concerns before.
“We expect that we have a lot of answers that we need to provide and a responsibility to keep the lines of communication open with the neighbors,” Pryor said. “Hospital development in that location was not something the neighbors anticipated.”
The Cal Young neighbors’ vote will go on record for City Council and the Planning Commission while they review decisions in regard to McKenzie-Willamette’s applications, although what effect the vote will have on their decisions is unknown. Representatives from McKenzie-Willamette and North Delta Neighbors, as well as residents from all over Eugene, will have opportunities to weigh in on the issue at public hearings and work sessions that will be held throughout the year.
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