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Mayor Torrey concurred with Ms. Nathanson. He said the incentives were in the preferred area. He said <br />that the hospital was looking for a location and it was driving the decision. The council wanted it to go <br />one place, and the hospital did not want to. He suggested the potential that the hospital could go to <br />Glenwood as Springfield was buying options on property in that area, and Glenwood is in Springfield. He <br />said a hospital in Glenwood would not be a Eugene hospital. He thought the community wanted a hospital <br />with a full emergency facility. Mayor Torrey said that if the answer from McKenzie-Willamette/Triad was <br />that it could not find a site in the preferred area, so be it. He thought more could be done to make the <br />fairgrounds work, although he acknowledged the neighbors would object. However, he believed the <br />neighbors would object no matter where the hospital located. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey spoke to those who asked, "Why not 2nd and cnamvers. He suggested the answer to some <br />degree was in the uncertainty of being the first development in such an area. He reiterated the site was <br />what the City wanted, not what McKenzie-Willamette/Triad wanted. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey called for a second round of comments from the council. <br /> <br />Noting the council was scheduled to go into executive session, Mr. Kelly did not think anything that had <br />been said prevented the council from discussing the issues involved in open session. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly shared Ms. Nathanson's concerns about the potential loss of industrial land but pointed out that <br />the industrial vacancy rate was currently not high. He said the Metro Partnership was not enthusiastic <br />about the development potential of the land in question, and he did not think the City would be losing out <br />on other industrial development opportunities if the site was occupied by a hospital. <br /> <br />Speaking to comments that McKenzie-Willamette/Triad was considering a Glenwood location, Mr. Kelly <br />pointed out that Glenwood was also largely zoned industrial and if the hospital found the industrial nature <br />of the 2nd and Chambers undesirable it should find Glenwood undesirable as well. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly liked Ms. Bettman's suggestion for a ~Plan B." He said the council should flesh out such a <br />proposal and begin to develop the actual boundaries for a tax increment district, for example. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly pointed out the hospital could proceed with its development plans tomorrow if it wished to <br />locate outside the incentive area. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner believed LUBA's decision regarding the PeaceHealth plan amendments had relevance for the <br />hospital's preferred site. The intersections in the vicinity were also near capacity and constituted major <br />transportation barriers to the development. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner said that while a smaller site might increase the costs for structured parking, when he <br />compared the land costs in the Delta site versus willing land prices in the 2nd and Chambers area, he <br />concluded it was probably ~a wash." <br /> <br />Speaking to the mayor's comments about the uncertainty of being the first development in the area, Mr. <br />Meisner said he recently spent a day in the Pearl District in Portland, a former industrial center than had <br />undergone extensive renovation and redevelopment in recent years. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner was also interested in having staff prepare a ~Plan B." He was interested in knowing what <br />revenues or bonding authority could exist in such a district and what the council could do with that. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 26, 2004 Page 7 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />