Cottage Grove hospital planning nearly on target.

Byline: RANDI BJORNSTAD The Register-Guard

COTTAGE GROVE - Amid the brouhaha that has accompanied PeaceHealth's efforts to relocate its downtown Eugene hospital to the Gateway area of northwest Springfield, the giant health care organization's other hospital-moving effort has proceeded in nearly total eclipse.

Nonetheless, plans to build a new hospital complex in Cottage Grove have advanced nearly on schedule, PeaceHealth spokesman Brian Terrett said, with groundbreaking anticipated for mid-2002 and opening slated for the summer of 2003.

On Monday, the City Council will consider a minor amendment to its urban renewal plan that would allocate $208,000 for improvements to Village Drive and pay for installation of a 12-inch water line to serve the 16.5-acre property just east of Interstate 5, adjacent to the Middlefield Estates development.

City Manager Richard Meyers said the requested improvements "do not materially alter the goals and and activities of the Urban Renewal Plan" and can be approved informally by the council acting as the Urban Renewal Agency.

However, a much larger request from the Lane Douglas Healthcare Foundation - for a loan of urban renewal money as part of $2 million in local matching funds for the project - concerns city officials and will require further deliberation by the community and the council, Meyers said.

"All the improvements and projects would dramatically increase the maximum debt in the renewal plan," he said.

The city staff "continues to be concerned about the capacity of the Urban Renewal District to borrow the funds for all of the proposed projects" involved with the hospital, he added.

Despite that concern, Terrett said PeaceHealth remains confident that the community will be able to come up with the $2 million the Roman Catholic-affiliated organization has asked for.

"We believe the community of Cottage Grove firmly supports this project," he said. "We believe this is something people want to have here so they can receive health care in most cases without leaving their local community."

The next step for PeaceHealth after Monday's council meeting will be an appearance before the city planning commission on Wednesday to request a conditional use permit that would allow construction of a medical facility on the proposed hospital site.

The health care organization, based Bellevue, Wash., closed a deal early in November to buy the land on Village Drive from Middlefield Properties for just under $1.2 million. The new facility will include a 40,000-square foot hospital building with 16 acute inpatient beds, the maximum allowed under state regulation for hospitals serving rural areas.

Doctors practicing in PeaceHealth's South Lane Medical Group also will occupy space in the new building, Terrett said. The new facility will cost about $9.7 million.

Cottage Grove Community Hospital now occupies a federally owned building at 1340 Birch Ave. Upon completion of the new hospital, decisions about the structure will revert to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.