Triad agrees to forgo Agate plan.

Byline: Joe Harwood The Register-Guard

Avoiding a $10 million expense and sidestepping a potential minefield of opposition, the Eugene City Council on Wednesday killed a proposal to extend Agate Street west along the Willamette River to provide additional access to a proposed riverfront hospital site.

Triad Hospitals Inc., based in Texas, is trying to buy a 23-acre parcel of the Eugene Water & Electric Board headquarters property to build a new McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center. Triad, majority owner of McKenzie-Willamette, wants to replace its aging Springfield facility with a five-story, $85 million medical center.

In order to use the riverside property for a hospital, however, Triad needs additional access to the site. The city has tentatively agreed to fund that road work with urban renewal district tax receipts.

Eugene officials initially proposed extending Agate west to the EWEB property. Options included running Agate either south or north of the railroad tracks. The northerly option would have put the street through what are now fields lining the Willamette River. That idea drew immediate fire from community members and city councilors Betty Taylor and Bonny Bettman, who oppose development along the riverbank.

In conjunction with the Agate Street proposal, the city suggested that another possible route into the proposed hospital site was to extend Patterson Street north and across the railroad tracks.

Roy Orr, chief executive of McKenzie-Willamette, provided relief to opponents of the Agate Street plan on Wednesday in the form of a letter stating that Triad can live without the Agate extension. Orr wrote that lengthening Patterson and building an underpass for Patterson under the railroad would provide safe, alternative access.

Council member David Kelly praised Orr and Triad for helping the council "eliminate a huge area of community controversy."

The Agate proposal would have cost an estimated $10 million.

Orr said in his letter that the Patterson extension and underpass would work only if the city could have the project - estimated to cost $11.9 million - completed by late 2007.

The council voted unanimously to direct staff to begin drafting a development agreement with Triad that would include the city funding construction of the Patterson extension if Triad spends $85 million on a new hospital at the site.

Council member Gary Pape urged city staff to immediately begin talks with Union Pacific Railroad to obtain permission to build the underpass.

Mayor Jim Torrey instructed City Manager Dennis Taylor to prod EWEB into moving more quickly to identify and buy a headquarters replacement site. "Let EWEB know moving is important," Torrey said.

But if or when EWEB might move is unclear.

The utility has long sought to move its headquarters and operations facilities away from the river and find more space elsewhere in Eugene.

When Triad picked the EWEB site as its top choice, the utility accelerated its search schedule, and is now trying to buy vacant land in west Eugene near Roosevelt Boulevard and Belt Line Road.

EWEB is still considering Triad's $22.9 million offer for the property.

Triad spokeswoman Rosie Pryor said the EWEB site remains the No. 1 choice, but other locations such as Glenwood remain viable for a new hospital.

EWEB has said it is looking to secure a purchase option on replacement property and then develop construction estimates to figure out how much moving would cost. Until then, the utility is sticking with a two-year-old estimate of $38.5 million to buy property and build new facilities.

Orr said the best-case scenario would be locking up the EWEB property by Nov. 1, or at least finding out by then whether Triad can strike a deal with EWEB. That would give Triad a year to go through local and state permitting and begin construction in late 2005.

Orr said he'd like to have the new hospital accepting patients by late 2007.