Arlie & Company

Press Releases

City suggests new hospital sites

Released: 02/08/2008

By Edward Russo, The Register-Guard

 

Hoping to keep McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center interested in Eugene, city officials have identified 13 possible sites for a new hospital, ranging from Civic Stadium, Westmoreland Park and land south of Greenhill Technology Park, on the southwest edge of the city.

 

Some of the possible sites had been looked at previously by McKenzie-Willamette executives at various times during their five-year search to find a new home.

 

Their search resumed publicly last month, after hospital executives, faced with a controversial battle for land use approval from the City Council, scrapped plans to build a hospital on the RiverRidge Golf Course in north Eugene.

 

Now, hospital executives are looking at sites in both Eugene and in Springfield’s Glenwood area. And officials from both cities are trying to woo the hospital to their respective towns.

 

Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, City Council President Chris Pryor, Vice President Bonny Bettman and other city officials last week presented the 13-site list to McKenzie-Willamette Chief Executive Maurine Cate. The list was distributed to the rest of Eugene’s city councilors on Thursday.

 

Pryor said that Cate told the delegation that she was willing to look at the list, but she added that her needs were “more directed and specific than they used to be in terms of money, time and hassle.”

 

Cate is not “interested in going through any more hassle,” Pryor said.

 

The previously mentioned sites that are being pitched again by Eugene officials include the Eugene Water & Electric Board riverfront complex, 33 acres in the Riverfront Research Park and 30 acres near West Second Avenue and Chambers Street. But a few of the sites had not been mentioned publicly, such as Civic Stadium; a 90-acre parcel tucked up along Interstate 5, east of Moon Mountain; 23 acres between Goodpasture Island Road and the Willamette River, south of Marist High School; and 20 acres next to The Register-Guard, on Chad Drive.

 

The site next to The Register-Guard is owned by Guard Publishing Co., publisher of the newspaper.

 

McKenzie-Willamettespokeswoman Debi Farr declined to say whether any of the sites are seriously being considered by hospital officials.

 

She said hospital executives appreciate the suggested sites, but each one must meet certain criteria to be considered a possibility.

 

Among other things, a site needs to be at least 25 acres, easy to get to, have high visibility and be within a city’s urban growth boundary, she said.

 

That might eliminate some of the 13 sites on the list, such as Civic Stadium, with only 16 acres, and a site owned by Eugene-based Arlie & Co., south of Lane Community College because it is outside the urban growth boundary.

 

“We are exercising due diligence and applying site criteria that will help us identify the best site for the community and our patients,” she said. “It makes sense to look at all the potential sites, even if some of those sites have been rejected in the past.”

 

City Councilor George Poling said he’s glad city officials are trying to keep Mc­Kenzie-Willamette interested in Eugene.

 

“But in the long run, the hospital people will have to decide where the hospital will go,” he said.

 

Poling said he was miffed that he was unable to get the site list from the city until Thursday, despite earlier requests. He said residents were asking him about potential spots for the hospital in Eugene.

 

“I would have liked to have seen the list so I could be part of the conversation,” he said.

Two of the potential locations are in his northeast ward: the Register-Guard property and a 35-acre parcel between Coburg Road and the upscale Crescent Meadows neighborhood, identified as the Eugene 4J School District/EWEB site.

 

Farr declined to say when hospital officials will decide where they will attempt to build a hospital.

 

“Our time frame has not been established,” she said. “We would like to make a decision as soon as possible.”