HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/16/2004 Regular
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City of Springfield
Special Regular Meeting
MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL REGULAR MEETING
OF THE JOINT SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL!
SPRINGFIELD PLANNING COMMISSION HELD
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2004.
Minutes of the Special Regular Meeting of the Joint Springfield City Council/Springfield
Planning Commission held on Tuesday, Nove~ber 16, 2004, at 7 p.m.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Sid Leiken, Anne Ballew, Dave Ralston, Christine Lundberg, John
Woodrow, Joe Pishioneri, City Council; Steve Moe, Chair; Bill Carpenter, David Cole, Frank
Cross, Gayle Decker, Greg Shaver, Springfi~ld Planning Commission
ABSENT:
Tammy Fitch, City Council
Lee Beyer, Springfield Planning Commission.
STAFF:
City Manager Mike Kelly, Assistant City Manager Cynthia Pappas, Colin
Stephens, Mel Oberst, Nick Amis, Gary McKenney, City Attorney Meg Kieran,
Ken Vogeney, Al Gerard, Linda Pauly.
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CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Sid Leiken called the meeting of the Springfield City Council to order.
ROLL CALL
City Recorder Amy Sowa called the council roll. City Council President Tammy Fitch was
absent.
Commissioner Carpenter called the meeting of the Springfield Planning Commission to order,
noting that Chair Steve Moe was participating via speakerphone. Commissioner Beyer was
absent. .
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Those present joined in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Approval of the minutes was postponed.
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BUSINESS FROM THE AUDIENCE
There was no business from the audience.
LEGISLATIVE PUBLIC HEARING
1. PeaceHealth Amendment Remand
Mayor Leiken provided an overview of the proceedings.
At the request of Mayor Leiken, City Attorney Meg Kieran reviewed State statutes related to bias
and ethics, specifically Oregon Revised Statute 197.835 and ORS 227.180(3). ORS 197.835
indicated a decision could be reversed or remanded on the basis of ex parte contacts or bias if the
member of the decision making body did not comply with ORS 227.180(3), which requIred
members of the decision making body with an ex parte contact to place that contact on the record.
She reviewed the defInition of ex parte communication from the Springfield Development Code,
and noted it did not include communication between staff and the Planning Commission. She
reviewed the definition of bias from the code.
Mayor Leiken noted that the City Council had previously voted to open the public hearing and
this was a continuation of that hearing.
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Commissioner Carpenter opened the public hearing on behalf of the Springfield Planning
Commission.
Mayor Leiken called for council ex parte contacts or conflicts of interest.
Councilor Woodrow noted that PeaceHealth was a sponsor of the Springfield holiday parade, of
which he was president, but it would not bias his decision.
Councilor Pishioneri reported that he had received a campaign donation from the Affinity Group,
an organization that may be associated with PeaceHealth, but that would not bias his decision.
Mayor Leiken reported on an ex parte contact with PeaceHealth Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Alan Yordy on another topic, the purchase of the Sony building by PeaceHealth' s parent
company, Oregon Medical Labs.
Commissioner Carpenter called for conflicts of interest or ex parte contacts on the part of the
Planning Commission.
Commissioner Cole declared a conflict of interest because his wife worked as a nurse at
PeaceHealth. He left the dias.
Commissioner Decker indicated she worked for a doctor but it would not bias her decision.
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Ms. Kieran clarified that the Court of Appeals chose to remand the decision to the Land Use
Board of Appeals (LUBA) rather than reverse it, and LUBA determined that remand, rather than
reversal, was the appropriate action because the court clearly expected the City to be able to make
fmdings responsive to the bases for remand, and because many of the provisions of the original
plan amendments survived the challenges to them. Ms. Kieran said the remand meant the
original plan amendments were not prohibited as a matter of law and do not violate the law. The
City's action on remand was the subject of the LUBA winnowing appellate process; no party may
challenge those provisions of the original plan amendments surviving the previous appellate
challenges. Only actions responsive to the remand were subject to appeal. .
Mr. Stephens briefly reviewed the applications before the council and commission and noted the
related criteria. He said that testimony must be directed at the criteria, and failure to raise an
issue by the close of the record with sufficient specificity to afford the decision makers and all
p~ies an opportunity to respond precludes an appeal to LUBA on that issue.
Mr. Stephens introduced into the record the previous record of all the proceedings related to the
applications cited earlier.
Commissioner Carpenter, seconded by Commissioner Shaver, moyed to
give parties to the remand six minutes rather than three minutes. The
motion passed, 5:0
Ms. Kieran indicated that the person's status in the prior case had no relevance to the action
before the council and commission. All were entitled to equal opportunity for public
participation. The CitY had historically allowed the applicant additional time.
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Councilor Ralston moved to give the parties to the remand wishing to
speak six minutes for testimony rather than three minutes. The motion
died for lack of a second.
City Manager Mike Kelly suggested the council and commission first hear from the applicant and
then decide how to proceed in regard to the amount of time allowed for testimony following the
recess.
Alan Yordy, chief executive officer for PeaceHealth, said PeaceHealth was ready to start
construction at the RiverBend site. He thought there was no better time or place to develop a
regional medical center than now in Springfield.
Mr. Yordy said he received an e-mail earlier that day from Admissions and Patient Coordinator
Barb Kessler, who informed him that the hospital was at a critical bed capacity in the short-stay
surgery and post-anesthesia recovery units. The hospital was working to determine what patients
could be discharged, and was notifying all outlying hospitals it was at critical capacity and to hold
patients. Patients might be transferred to Portland. While the hospital had not yet declared the
need to divert all patients, it was close to that point.
Mr. Yordy said three challenges remained to the project, which PeaceHealth was prepared to
address. He said delays only added to construction costs, and community hospitals needed to be
prepared for the future. He thought Ms. Kessler's e-mail message illustrated the impending
capacity crisis the community was heading toward. Mr. Yordy said PeaceHealth had the
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opportunity to provide the community and region with the best most advanced medical
technology in a setting designed to foster healing and meet patient and family needs.
Mr. Yordy reported that a twelve-member progressive hospital organization, Pebble Partners, had
recently invited PeaceHealth to join it. Research done at other Pebble Partner facilities indicated
that something as simple as a view from a patient room actually sped the healing process and
reduced the length of a hospital stay by about ten percent. He said that PeaceHealth was
committed to providing open space on the site and enhancing the riparian zone along the river.
Mr. Yordy said the PeaceHealth board was so convinced that the RiverBend site was the correct
site for the facility that it approved a $15 million guarantee to the Oregon Department of
Transportation (ODOT) to ensure transportation facilities were in place to serve both the facility
and larger community. That was in addition to PeaceHealth's earlier contributions toward road
projects in the area.
Mr. Yordy said the two large employers drove the Lane County economy, PeaceHealth and the
University of Oregon. In addition to providing a tax base at RiverBend more than double that of
residential housing, the proposed development provided an opportunity for partnerships with the
University and other groups. The RiverBend campus will provide more than 2,225 family wage
jobs, with the potential of adding 300 to 500 additional family wage jobs in the first five years of
operation. PeaceHealth brought money into the local economy from outside Lane County and
was seeking no subsidies but rather wished to extend a helping hand with its fmancial assistance
in transportation project funding.
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Mr. Yordy suggested there may be no better place or even any other place in the community
where such a regional medical center could be built. He deferred comment on the remaining
issues to be addressed in the remand to Mr. Farrington, and thanked the council and commission
for their support.
Philip Farrington, 677 East 12th Avenue, Director of Planning for PeaceHealth, said the City's
Medical Services (MS) zone would be applied to the area the site redesignated Community
Commercial (CC), and redesignated other nonresidential areas to allow for the application of
Mixed-Use Commercial (MUC) zoning. The court ruling did not invalidate the council's policy
decision to allow a hospital on the site, nor did it rule the MS zone could not be used. Rather, the
court found that the proposed hospital use was essentially commercial in nature, and required the
application of a different Metro Plan land use designation. The City's code allowed the MS zone
to be implemented on land designated CC, which was consistent with the court's ruling. Mr.
Farrington said the mix and proportion of uses underpinning the transportation analysis and
master plan previously approved by the council remained unchanged.
Mr. Farrington spoke to the legislative change proposed to the Springfield code regarding the MS
zone. The revised text clarified a future hospital must have direct access to an arterial street, but
that the hospital site can have frontage on a collector street. That was consistent with the
council's previous direction.
Mr. Farrington discussed proposed changes to Springfield's Commercial Lands Study. He said
that LUBA ruled that the City did not explain how the adopted ordinances were consistent with
the study. Two polices in the study, I-B and 3-A, called for redesignating and rezoning land to
allow for mixed use commercial zoning and higher density development in conjunction with
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employment and residential opportunities. Mr. Farrington said that was what the proposal
achieved. In addition, it reduced the City's deficit of needed commercial land that was identified
in the Commercial Lands Study.
Mr. Farrington said a subordinate implementation 'strategy in the Commercial Lands Study called
for there to be ten to fifteen acres of commercial in the Gateway Refmement Plan Medium-
Density Residential (MDR) site. The fmdings explain that the acreage reference in the strategy
was not a limitation on the number of acres or the zoning districts the City employed to
implement its policies~ The study made a distinction between policies adopted for compliance
with Goal 9, Economic Development, and the strategies, which were possible methods of
furthering the policies. When adopting the study, the council made findings that nothing limited
its ability to use a variety of strategies to implement the policies the study. The City Council had
the ability to modify strategies or adopt different ones to realize the economic development goals
set out in the study.
Continuing, Mr. Farrington said in addition to fmdings distinguishing the premises of the policies
in the study over those strategies, the City was proposing an amendment to the plan that changed
the language of the implementation strategy in question to clarify how the proposed use was
considered in the remand ordinances appropriately furthers the study's policies.
Mr. Farrington noted his submission of written testimony and invited questions. He deferred
comment on the third remand issue to Mr. Robinson.
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Mike Robinson, 1120 NW Couch Street, Portland, Perkins Coie LLP, discussed LUBA's remand
of the decision as it related to the Transportation Planning Rule (TPR). He said that PeaceHealth
had worked with the City's Planning and Transportation staffs to revise the transportation impact
analysis (TIA) to respond to the court ruling. The findings had been revised accordingly.
Mr. Robinson said for the most part, the former TIA was fine but lacked information about
whether there was any point in the entire planning horizon where a transportation facility failed.
That analysis had been done. The revised TIA looked at the planning horizon through 2020,
consistent with the Oregon Highway Plan. The applicant determined that for the vast majority of
intersections there was no significant affect and plenty of capacity to accommodate the uses
PeaceHealth was asking the council and commission to approve. For those intersections lacking
capacity, mitigation measures would be imposed as allowed by the TPR. He summarized the
mitigation measures, which included a trip cap and two TransPlan improvement projects, a traffic
signal at intersection of Hutton Road and Beltline and eastbound ramps at Pioneer Parkway and Q
Street. Those construction costs would be paid by PeaceHealth.
Ed Sullivan, 121 SW Morrison, Suite Ill, Portland, said as a result of the Court of Appeals
decision, minor modifications were made to PeaceHealth's plans for a regional medical campus.
PeaceHealth had tried to meet with and accommodate everyone, but it was impossible to please
everyone. Mr. Sullivan said the remand related mostly to the findings, and not to any substantive
portion ofthe project. He expressed the hope the City would restrict its review ofthe remand to
those issues specifically remanded by LUBA. Mr. Sullivan pointed out that the council and
commission had previously agreed with PeaceHealth on most of the issues as well as the fact of
the development itself. The changes made by PeaceHealth to comply with the appeal decisions
did not change the project significantly from that approved previously. Mr. Sullivan said that
many people did not like the proposal and he acknowledged change was difficult for some.
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However, the question before the elected and advisory officials was whether the development met
the City's standards. He noted that LUBA and the courts found the decision was not subject to
approval by other jurisdictions. Nothing in the remand changed that.
Mr. Sullivan anticipated that some members of the public would offer testimony in an attempt to
distract the council and commission from the relatively few issues at hand. For example, he
anticipated the two bodies would hear calls for PeaceHealth to drop the time and investment it
had in the RiverBend site and relocate its facilities to Glenwood. He pointed out that there was
no requirement for an alternatives analysis. However, Mr. Sullivan noted for the record that
PeaceHealth had looked at the "Glenwood alternative" and found it not to be viable for a variety
of reasons. '
Mr. Sullivan expected to hear that all or a substantial portion of the site should be given to The
Nature Conservancy, that it should increase health care costs by settling for an inefficient campus,
or give in to the implicit threats of neighboring property owners that if PeaceHealth did not do
. what they wished, they would hold up the project forever. PeaceHealth did not do business that
way, and chose to bring the proposal to the council and commission for resolution of whether the
application met the City's standards. Mr. Sullivan concluded by saying the PeaceHealth had
addressed the remand issues and complied with existing goals and ordinances.
Mr. Sullivan invited questions of himself and the development team.
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Responding to a question from Councilor Ralston about the transportation improvements
discussed by Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Robinson reminded him that the Pioneer Parkway intersection
project was a condition previously imposed by the council on the development. No party
challenged the finding made by the council previously.
Commissioner Carpenter determined from Mr. Robinson that the fIrst year in which traffic was
evaluated in the TIA was 2005. Each year from 2005 through 2020 was evaluated.
Commissioner Carpenter asked what the maximum construction work force would be at the site.
Mr. Farrington said the peak construction work force would probably be about 600 people.
However, they would all be traveling to the site on off-peak hours. In response to a follow-up
question from Commissioner Carpenter, Mr. Robinson said construction traffic was not
considered in the TIA because the TPR required an analysis of the trips that the allowed use
generated. Mr. Farrington added that construction trips were assumed in be implicit in the
background study for the regional model. The issue was not relevant to the plan amendment
process. Commissioner Carpenter asked about the construction schedule. Mr. Farrington was not
sure, noting that traditionally construction workers started work before peak a.m. travel hours.
Commissioner Carpenter asked if construction traffic would be addressed as a condition of a later
permit. Mr. Farrington responded that PeaceHealth would work with the City's Traffic Engineer
to facilitate safe and efficient access to the site and to minimize impact on the surrounding
neighborhoods.
Commissioner Carpenter asked if Mr. Robinson was aware of any case law related to the issue of
whether construction trips for a major project over a number of years must be evaluated in the
TIA and counted in the trip cap. Mr. Robinson said no, because the TPR did not require an
analysis of construction traffic.
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Mr. Farrington said he would get back to the commission with more information about the
projected construction employment levels.
Responding to a question from Commissioner Carpenter, Mr. Farrington indicated that 440 beds
were proposed at the new facility. PeaceHealth was licensed for 432 beds at the current facility.
He said that the number depended on whether one counted only licensed beds. For example, .
neonatal and nursery beds and ICU beds were not counted as licensed beds. Mr. Yordy indicated
he would provide a side-by-side comparison. He said that neonatal and nursery beds will be
expanded significantly. He anticipated that there would be about 30 to 50 additional beds, some
under the license and some outside the license.
Mayor Leiken asked if the Hynix construction project included a trip cap. Ms. Kieran said she
would research the question.
Mayor Leiken solicited additional questions.
Councilor Lundberg asked for staff clarification of whether construction traffic was already
accounted for in the regional model. Mr. Stephens indicated staff would respond in writing after
doing more research.
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Addressing the earlier discussion about the amount of time provided for public testimony, Ms.
Kieran noted there were no time limits on testimony in the State statutes or in the Springfield
Development Code. The presiding officer may limit testimony with the concurrence of the
council. Under the council's existing policies, a person may speak longer than three minutes if
the request is made prior to a meeting. The council must vote on the extension of time, the mayor
must approve of that extension, and any motion to concur with the Planning Commission's
motion must include a waiver of the council's policy.
Mayor Leiken called for a brief recess. Following the recess, the meeting reconvened.
Commissioner Carpenter, seconded by Commissioner Shaver, moved to
allow each speaker four minutes to speak. The motion passed
unanimously, 5:0.
Ms. Ballew, seconded by Ms. Lundberg, moved that the council waive
its policy regarding testimony and allow four minutes per speaker. The
motion passed unanimously, 5:0.
Mr. Pishioneri asked if the transportation improvement projects would be completed prior to the
hospital's opening. Mr. Robinson said yes, prior to Phase 1 and the opening of the hospital.
Mr. Pishioneri asked about the issue of public access to the riverbank through the property. Mr.
Stephens said that a policy in the Gateway Refmement Plan, GRP Residential Element Policy and
Implementation Action 13.4, called for a guarantee of access to the river through the site for the
general public. He said if the plan amendments were adopted, the master plan was subject to
council approval and the council would be able to decide how access occurred through that
process. Having the policy in place assured the issue would be addressed.
Mayor Leiken called for testimony from the general public.
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Sue Slaughter Nichols, 885 North 66th Street, Springfield, President of the Springfield Chamber
of Commerce, said the chamber's board of directors supported the PeaceHealth project. She said
the board believed the best scenario for the metropolitan area was two thriving hospitals. The
project was good for economic development and would add good jobs to the community. The
chamber found PeaceHealth a good partner in the transportation projects and had worked to fmd
solutions to the problems that had been raised.
John Tupper, 4055 Royal Avenue, Eugene, noted his family's extensive history with
PeaceHealth. He served as a volunteer at PeaceHealth now at the Heart to Heart Program. He
said he believed in the hospital's mission and said the care given was outstanding.
Compassionate caring was continually promoted. He said that beginning with the actions of the
Eugene City Council, the issue got off track. He said the address of the hospital was not
important because it was a regional hospital. Everyone needed a hospital, and it should be a good
one. Mr. Tupper said the hospital was currently over its capacity; during a recent visit he was
placed in intensive care because they had no place else to go. Parking at the current facility was
terrible, He hoped that people would stop to think about the issue and realize the need that
existed for the new facility. .
Valerie Bill, 6703 Dogwood Street, Springfield, said as a Springfield resident she would be
proud to have the hospital in the community. She was a nurse on the post-surgical floor at the
hospital and could attest that the hospital had no beds. She was in charge of placing patients and
it was very difficult. The hospital had to put extra staff on in the recovery rooms to hold patients
there until there were beds. Ms. Bill noted that it took six hours recently to fmd her 93-year old
father a bed when he had a heart attack.
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John Hyland, 89006 Whitewater Road, Springfield, said,all those present would have cause to
use the new hospital. He pointed out that PeaceHealth was not seeking any tax breaks and merely
wanted to build a hospital. He thought the project being proposed was outstanding and it would
bring many construction jobs to the community and employ local contractors. He said that
construction had been down recently. Mr. Hyland urged the council and commission to approve
the plan amendments. He could see no downside to PeaceHealth's proposal.
Sister Barbara Haase, 2214 Ridgeway Drive, Eugene, past administrator of Sacred Heart
Medical Center, recalled the hospital's search for land on which to expand in 1989. She
supported the RiverBend campus proposal. She noted her work as a liaison between PeaceHealth
and the many social and human service agencies in Lane County, and said that the United Way
annual needs assessment indicated health care was on the top of the list of local unfunded
community needs. Modern facilities to serve patients were needed. Sister Haase said that
RiverBend provided that expansion room now and for the future. She noted that since her first
employment with the hospital in 1976, the footprint of the existing facility had not changed. She
believed the City of Springfield and PeaceHealth shared a goal of serving the community to the
best of its ability without ruining the environment of the RiverBend site. She urged the council
and commission's support for the proposal so construction could occur as quickly as possible.
Alan Johnson, 2303 SE Grant Street, Portland, represented the appellants, John and Robin
Jacqua. He believed that PeaceHealth was asking the council and commission to accept the same
arguments that had been rejected by the Court of Appeals and LUBA. He disagreed that
PeaceHealth's respond to the remand was satisfactory. He maintained that the commercial
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designations being proposed were intended for uses more limited in scale, scope, and impact. He
did not believe the Metro Plan allowed the use of the two designations to establish a regional
medical center. Mr. Johnson said that the Metro Plan lacked a regional medical designation,
which was needed. The plan did not contemplate or allow for the use under consideration. He
believed changes were needed to the Metro Plan text to allow the hospital to be built on the site.
Mr. Johnson likened the proposal to the development of Valley River Center, saying it would pull
the regional core of the downtown central businesses areas and relocate them to the edge of town.
He called for a regional discussion between the cities of Eugene and Springfield and Lane County
to create a new regional medical services designation and solve the problems of both PeaceHealth
and McKenzie- Willamette/Triad. He suggested that the development could destroy downtown
and leave the community with one hospital, one insurer, and one choice in health care. He did
not think Springfield could make that choice unilaterally. Mr. Johnson noted his submission of
written testimony, and requested that the Planning Commission act independently of the council
and continue the hearing for one month, with the record to be left open two weeks following that.
He maintained that there were parts of the application that had yet to be submitted to the City.
Mr. Johnson maintained that the scope of the remand was broader than stated by the City's legal
counsel and staff, and the public notices were too narrow. His clients did not want to slow the
process for the sake of slowing it, but wanted the City to "get it right."
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Rob Handy, 455-Y2 River Road, Eugene, argued that residents needed the dependability provided
by refmement plans. He questioned the justification for changing the Gateway Refinement Plan
without the involvement of affected neighborhoods. He believed the issue was regional in nature
given the regional nature of the hospital and other elected officials from other jurisdictions should
also be involved in the decision. Mr. Handy questioned the impacts of the project on the
transportation system and the supply of housing. He suggested the family wage jobs brought to
the community were more appropriately located in Glenwood than in the RiverBend area as
infrastructure to serve the hospital already existed in that area. Mr. Handy endorsed the local
rivers as public treasures. He questioned whether public access to the river would occur from the
site.
Thomas Row, 1162 Willamette Street, Eugene, a pediatrician with the PeaceHealth Medical
Group, discussed the need for a new hospital by describing the conditions at the existing hospital,
which had been remodeled repeatedly since its original construction. He said that codes changed
throughout the years, making remodeling expensive and challenging. It was difficult to
accommodate staff and patients in the facility. He said that PeaceHealth employed more than
5,000 people and many of those employees lived in Springfield. Those employees were happy
working at PeaceHealth and, unlike the rest ofthe country, PeaceHealth had few nursing
vacancies. He noted that hospital employees raised $1,200,000 to support the new RiverBend
campus. Dr. Row said that this year, PeaceHealth was rated the eighth best employer in Oregon.
The quality of doctors was high and they were drawn to the area from out of the community.
Rob Zako, 1280-B East 20th Avenue, Eugene, Transportation Advocate for 1,000 Friends of
Oregon, emphasized that the public hearing concerned a land use and planning proceeding. He
noted the peripheral development associated with PeaceHealth wherever it chose to locate the
hospital. The question was where in Lane County that occurred. Mr. Zako asserted that the
question went to the issue of where the council and commission wished "the heart of the
community to be." He suggested that allowing development at one site precluded it elsewhere
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because there was only so much economic activity the community could support due to limited
public funds for improvements.
Mr. Zako believed that the applicable transportation system plan was TransPlan rather than the
Regional Transportation Plan. He wanted to ensure that the TIA referred to TransPlan. He said
the projects in the Regional Transportation Plan were not relevant to the application.
Mr. Zako was concerned about transportation-related conditions and agreements being put into
place outside of TransPlan. What would prevent the council from undoing those once approved?
He suggested that they be codified in TransPlan. He indicated he would provide further comment
in writing.
Mr. Zako quoted from TransPlan related to the need for approval of development outside nodes to
ensure they were consistent with the area's nodal development strategy. He believed that there
was an issue regarding whether the proposal represented nodal development, and pointed out that
the City of Springfield was complying with Goall2 by locating new jobs and housing inside
nodes.
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Tom Bowerman, 33707 McKenzie View, Eugene, opposed the proposal. He maintained that the
City was "gutting" planning documents through consideration of the proposal. He asked why the
City spent time on the Gateway Refinement Plan and nodal development strategies only to
dispense with all or parts of it with no "stakeholder" input. He asserted that the City of
Springfield was ignoring the letter and intent of State goals. Compact urban growth did not mean
allowing development anywhere inside the urban growth boundary (UGB). Mr. Bowerman
objected to allowing growth on the fringe of the urban growth boundary as he did not think it was
good for downtown. He maintained that since adoption of its Growth Management Study, calling
for intensification of the urban core, Eugene had increased its taxable value by seven percent
while Springfield's "increased at less than half of that, eight percent." He suggested a link
between growth management and value. He advocated for proactive planning rather than reactive
planning.
Mr. Bowerman asserted a new book on hospital architecture, title not cited, demonstrated that
large hospitals should be built at two to four stories for healing and protecting the visual
sensitivity of their sites. He believed the proposed facility would destroy the visual qualities of
the site.
Mr. Bowerman called for a regional planning effort involving Eugene and Lane County.
Gary Young, 741 East 20th Avenue, Eugene, Eugene Emergency Physicians, supported
PeaceHealth's proposal. He said long waits to get into the hospital were very common, and the
hospital was frequently unable to meet the demand for beds. His group cared for patients from all
over the region and under State law must take transfers from outside the area, such as southern
Oregon. He had participated in the hospital planning process and believed the new proposed
hospital would be a big improvement over what currently existed. He said that Sacred Heart at its
current location was not the major medical center needed for the future, and the longer
PeaceHealth delayed in building a new medical center, the longer the waits will be and the more
patients would be harmed. Dr. Young urged the council to consider the health of the entire
community. He related a story of a patient who experienced a heart attack but had been able to
access the cathode lab in time; he noted that at one time, that facility was located in a trailer in them
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parking lot while the existing facility was remodeled, and patients were directed from the
emergency department to the parking lot.
Commissioner Shaver asked how construction of the new facility would assist with the new
hospital as only 18 additional beds were being contemplated. That did not seem like much to
him. Dr. Young responded there was more to the issue than the number oflicensed beds. For
example, the emergency department had 36 beds now, and at RiverBend the department would
have between 45 and 50, which was the type of expansion needed. In addition, the State law
allows for an increase in hospital bed capacity of ten percent every year, so while the initial plan
did not call for a large increase in beds, the emergency department would be bigger and the entire
hospital would be bigger and have more square footage in which to expand.
Steve Ferrarini, 818 John Adams Street, Oregon City, Ferrarini & Associates, a real estate
economics consulting fmn, discussed his firm's analysis of the project. He believed the
RiverBend project would be a great asset to Springfield. First, it was a viable project. His
analysis indicated both the project and proposed residential densities were supported by the
market. Second, while it was large, the development would not preclude nodal development from
occurring in other locations in the community. It was unique in character and would not compete
with other nodes. There was considerable commercial demand left over. He noted his submittal
into the record of a 20-year forecast of demand for various land uses. Third, Mr. Ferrarini said,
RiverBend would generate about 5,400 new jobs at buildout, representing a 24 percent increase in
Springfield's employment base. The jobs being created are high-wage jobs, and the industry was
a fast-growing one. Four, PeaceHealth would pay its way and planned to contribute considerable
dollars to transportation projects. Also, the development would generate more tax dollars than
would be realized if the site was developed as MDR.
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Commissioner Carpenter asked if the analysis addressed the fact PeaceHealth was nonprofit and
paid no taxes. Mr. Ferrarini said yes. The net effect was more than the MDR site would have
generated on its own. He said his numbers were taken from the analysis done by Duncan and
Brown and were part of the record.
Jan Wilson, POBox 5753, Eugene, CHOICES, requested additional time for the record to be
held open so that the public had time to review the staff report and recommendations. She said
the fmdings for the application had been on the Web site for less than one week. She maintained
that the ~pplication was a wholesale change from the previous application rather than a remand of
the original decision. She asked that all the documents from the previous record and all court
documents and decisions be entered into the record.
Ms. Wilson averred a new application and new findings were needed. She said that PeaceHealth
was engaging in land speculation and the delay was its own making. PeaceHealth could have had
a hospital open already if it had chosen a site appropriately zoned with existing infrastructure.
Ms. Wilson submitted articles from past editions of The Register-Guard, which she interpreted as
demonstrating changes in PeaceHealth's position on its needs over time. She maintained there
were other options for PeaceHealth to redevelop its Hilyard Street site to meet its 'expansion
needs. She submitted information about those options.
Jim Just, 39625 Almen Drive, Lebanon, Goal 1 Coalition, said his organization championed
citizen involvement in local decision making. He spoke to the process, suggesting that the
decisions being contemplated went beyond the scope of the remand. He maintained that the
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MDR zoning had not previously been "on the table." Mr. Just cited the Commercial Lands Study
revisions as another example. He did not think those issues had been adequately addressed in the
materials submitted by the applicant. Mr. Just said the issue was not the need for the hospital but
the need for adequate residential and commercial land supplies. He was concerned"about the
scope of the citizen involvement related to the issue, suggesting the issues were being addressed
in a truncated process without addressing the needs of residents in the area. .
Lauri Segal, 120 West Broadway, 1,000 Friends of Eugene, supported the request to extend the
time the written record was open to give the public more time for review. She asserted that
PeaceHealth's proposal did not comply with State Goal 10, Housing, because it did not maintain
an adequate supply ofMDR land. Approval of the applications would reduce the land designated
for MDR. Ms. Segal said the Metro Plan and Gateway Refmement Plan Diagram amendments
failed to ensure an adequate supply ofMDR land. She said a monitoring report from April 2004
concluded that Springfield had 163 acres ofMDR to meet projected demand in the planning
period as of January 30, 2003.
Ms. Segal said that Chapter 40 of the Springfield Development Code required that commercial
districts have a commercial predominance. She maintained that could only be realized in this
area through high-density development. She believed the record lacked evidence to establish it
was possible to allow a commercial use as a dominant use while retaining MDR densities. Ms.'
Segal submitted written testimony.
.
Kristin Greene, 2132 Southwest Broadway, Portland, said she represented Cogan Owens Cogan,
a fmn engaged in "planning, communications, governmental, and community relations,
environmental studies, and dispute resolution" located on 813 SW Alder Street, Suite 320,
Portland. She said her firm was asked by Mr. Johnson to evaluate the development and master
plan proposal against smart growth planning principles, the nodal development principles in
TransPlan, and the mixed use and community commercial designations in the Metro Plan and
Gateway Refmement Plan. Ms. Greene reviewed some written information she provided to the
commission and council to summarize her comparisons, concluding that PeaceHealth' s proposal
failed to meet those principles as the development did not represent true mixed use, contained
traditional building types and massing, housing was segregated by type, buildings were oriented
toward the parking lot rather than the street, development encroached into the floodplain, and the
site was too large to be pedestrian friendly. In addition, the development would take away from
the employment focus from downtown and worked against the City's re-use strategy in the core.
"New Urbanism" concepts were lacking in the design.
Joseph Cortwright, 1424 Northeast Knott Street, Portland, identified himself as an economist
with Improsa, Inc. He indicated he reviewed the staff report at the request of Mr. Johnson. He
distinguished between the local and traded sectors, saying PeaceHealth existed to serve the needs
of the local sector of the economy, rather than the regional community. Mr. Cortwight opined
that the demand for PeaceHealth's services was stable because the demand came from the local
population. The number of health care jobs was not influenced by how many hospitals were built
or where they were built. It was a product of demand, and the facility did not change the demand.
It did not add to jobs, it merely relocated them.
Mr. Cortwright acknowledged the importance of the health care sector to the community's
economy, and said the siting of the health care sector was a large concentrated source of
employment that contributed to the health of business districts. He averred PeaceHealth' s
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location at RiverBend would compromise existing central business districts, which are influenced
by scale.
Mr. Cortwright discussed the CC designation, saying the scale of the development exceeded the
local community intended to be served by the designation. The facility in question was regional
in scale, and the Metro Plan did not contemplate a major regional campus serving the entire
region in this area. He thought the proposed plan designation was out of scale and not in keeping
with the proposed development.
Ken Hamm, General Manager for the Lane Transit District (LTD), emphasized PeaceHealth's
commitment to the use of mass transit and alternate modes. He discussed LID's work with
PeaceHealth in regard to how L TD would serve its project, which he anticipated would result in a
reduction of trips to the site. He noted PeaceHealth's willingness to facilitate a Bus Rapid Transit
(BRT) route to the hospital site. He said that over time, that would mitigate a considerable
number of trips generated by the facility.
Mr. Hamm disagreed with testimony suggesting that PeaceHealth was indifferent to the needs of
pedestrians and bicyclists traveling through the project area, noting that PeaceHealth had been
very responsive to needs ofBRT in that regard.
Commissioner Carpenter asked Mr. Hamm what percentage of employees at PeaceHealth
currently took advantage of the bus. Mr. Hamm indicated he could provide ridership counts for
the facility, noting that PeaceHealth offered its employees a group pass, meaning all employees
could ride the bus.
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Mayor Leiken called for rebuttal from the applicant.
Regarding Ms. Greene's critique of the master plan, Mr. Farrington pointed out that the master
plan was not in question and he would address her comments in his written rebuttal.
Speaking to Ms. Segal's testimony regarding Goal 10, Housing, Mr. Farrington reminded the
council and commission that challenges to that issue had not survived. He quoted from the
LUBA decision in regard to the residential acreage, which stated that the City did not rest solely
on the post decision surplus of MDRdesignated land.
Speaking to suggestions that the hospital was a product of local demand, Mr. Farrington said that
PeaceHealth was a regional hospital now at the Hilyard location. It was the largest hospital on
the smallest site of its kind in the state. The Hilyard location was the biggest hospital between
Portland and San Francisco. Mr. Farrington said more than a third of inpatient admits come from
a five-county region outside the Eugene-Springfield area.
Mr. Farrington reminded those present that PeaceHealth had considered redeveloping on the
Hilyard campus, which would have cost far more and taken much longer, with service impacts
throughout the 12-year construction process which were not considered tenable. The hospital's
expansion plans in north Eugene and west of the current site were not supported in Eugene by the
Eugene City Council. Now PeaceHealth was left with this site, which he considered the best site.
He said that Ms. Wilson's contention that there were plenty of suitable sites for a hospital was not
true. There were no commercially zoned 50 acre sites available, particularly with proximity to
transportation facilities serving Eugene-Springfield and the five-county region PeaceHealth
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served. Mr. Farrington said that because of the appeals that CHOICES made to Eugene's
decisions related to McKenzie- Willamette/Triad, there was now even less certainty about what
zoning designations allow for hospital uses. The hospital was an allowed use on the four-block
site it was located on now, which was designated Community Commercial, the same zoning
sought in this instance to facilitate the hospital relocation.
Mr. Farrington indicated he would provide the council and commission with a list ofthe citizen
input opportunities held to inform the public about PeaceHealth's proposed RiverBend campus.
He said that PeaceHealth had given great deference to the hopes and desires ofthose living near
the hospital and throughout the community.
Mr. Farrington disagreed with Mr. Just about his contention that the amendments related to the 99
acres were not part of the previous decision. The acreage was referenced throughout the LUBA
opinion. The proposal met the housing targets established for the site.
Mayor Leiken closed the public hearing. He invited questions.
Ms. Kieran recommended that the public record be left open.
Commissioner Shaver requested a mapped comparison of what was being proposed now and
what had been considered earlier. Mr. Stephens indicated such a map could be provided.
.
Commissioner Shaver asked what assurances the City had that the property would not become a
shopping center ifPeaceHealth decided against building a hospital. Mr. Stephens said the
conditions of approval prepared for the plan amendments required the master plan to include a
hospital. Whatever was proposed by PeaceHealth in the master plan must be approved by
commission and council.
Commissioner Shaver expressed concern that the City could rezone the property but the hospital
would not be built and then someone would seek a change to address the pl~zone conflict.
Commissioner Shaver moved to defer to the City Council in
regard to the length of time the public record was left open. The
motion died for lack of a second.
. Mayor Leiken asked the council to consider an extension of the record.
Councilor Ballew believed the issues were sufficiently narrowed through the appeals process that
two weeks for additional comment was adequate.
Mr. Stephens reminded the council and commission that during the previous process, the record
was left open for seven days, and staff was proposing twice that amount.
Councilor Woodrow, seconded by Councilor Ballew, moved to
deny the request to extend the record. The motion passed 4: 1;
Councilor Ralston voting no. (Councilor Fitch absent)
Mr. Cross, seconded by Ms. Decker, moved to accept the
schedule as presented.
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Commissioner Carpenter expressed concern about the lack of time for public review.
The motion passed unanimously, 5:0.
The meeting adjourned at 9:59 p.m.
Minutes Recorder - Kim Young
~,
Attest:
Am~
City Recorder
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