A long and winding road.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Each new turn of events offers stakeholders an opportunity to view McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center's plans to build a new hospital in north Eugene as a glass that is half-empty or half-full.

Tuesday's announcement by Eugene Planning and Development Department staff that it can't recommend approval of zoning changes for the $225 million hospital project can be seen as half a glass of heartburn for hospital officials. With a crucial public hearing set for next Tuesday before the Eugene Planning Commission, it's obvious McKenzie-Willamette's presentation will be incomplete.

City planners say that McKenzie-Willamette's traffic analysis hasn't shown that its proposed fixes for the congested Delta Highway/Belt Line Road interchange will comply with a statewide goal meant to ensure safe transportation. Furthermore, even if McKenzie-Willamette's traffic consultant could produce satisfactory answers to Eugene's complex questions in the next few days, the Oregon Department of Transportation won't have time to respond to the new information before Tuesday's meeting.

That undoubtedly looks like a half-full development for hospital opponents who live adjacent to the RiverRidge Golf Course property on which McKenzie-Willamette hopes to build a new eight-story, 423,000 square foot facility. Neighborhood opposition is strong and well organized. They'll turn out in force for Tuesday's hearing, and they'll do their best to argue that building a hospital at the end of Delta Highway would be an unmitigated traffic disaster.

It won't be a difficult case to make, statistically or anecdotally. The Belt Line/Delta Highway interchange is one of the most congested and dangerous in the Eugene-Springfield area.

But as onerous as the thought of a hospital is to the north Eugene residents who fight maddening traffic congestion along Belt Line every day, the project actually has the potential to alleviate some of the area's worst problems.

With Triad Hospitals Inc., McKenzie-Willamette's majority owner, willing to pay the cost of mitigating the traffic impact of a new hospital, the three governments with a stake in fixing the Belt Line/Delta Highway problems have new incentive to make progress. Lane County, the city of Eugene and ODOT all are responsible for pieces of the failing road system. The hospital project has served to concentrate the minds of public officials where abstract traffic statistics have been less successful.

Traffic experts agree that there are both incremental and comprehensive solutions to the Belt Line/Delta Highway problems. But they are not simple, and they are not cheap.

They require the cooperation of multiple jurisdictions with different budgets, political realities and timetables. They also may require a good bit more than the $3.5 million worth of work Triad has agreed to commit to improvements.

All that adds up to a process that isn't likely to move at the pace or come in at the price that McKenzie-Willamette wishes it would. But the key is that it is a process that has objective requirements and codified criteria every step of the way.

Whether McKenzie-Willamette builds a new hospital at what it calls the Delta Ridge site won't be decided by the number of e-mails Eugene city councilors receive or the number of lawn signs the North Delta Neighbors plant in the surrounding area. It will be decided by public officials who will determine if the requirements of the law have been met.

Neighborhood opposition alone isn't likely to kill McKenzie-Willamette's plan to build a hospital at Delta Ridge, though no one should underestimate the power of determined citizens to delay a complex project.

The real enemy is, as McKenzie-Willamette CEO Roy Orr said in April, the uncompromising march of time.

Only time will tell if McKenzie-Willamette can afford to wait long enough to answer all the questions and satisfy all the requirements posed by this problematic site. But if it does, it will have helped to make life better for everyone who must endure the Belt Line traffic gantlet, including the North Delta Neighbors.