McKenzie-Willamette ER plan advances after Eugene land use hearing

A proposed McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center emergency room on West 6th Avenue moved one step closer to Eugene after a land-use hearing that focused less on hospital rhetoric than on zoning, traffic and what the city would allow on the site at 1850 and 1880 W. 6th Avenue.

The project is being reviewed under Conditional Use Permit CU 25-03 and Major Adjustment Review ARB 26-01 for a satellite emergency department. City staff said the Hearings Official will issue a written decision within 15 days after the close of public comment, so the hearing did not deliver a final green light. Staff also said the building would sit well below the zone’s maximum height and would be placed close to West 6th Avenue and Grant Street, in line with surrounding commercial development.

The proposal matters because Eugene has gone without its own hospital-based emergency department since PeaceHealth closed the University District ER on Dec. 1, 2023, after announcing the shutdown in August of that year. Since then, ambulances have been routed about six miles to RiverBend hospital in Springfield, a trip that has added roughly a half-hour in some cases and pulled first responders away from other calls.

Earlier plans for the McKenzie-Willamette project described a 12-bed, 24/7 standalone emergency department in a one-story building of about 18,800 to 19,000 square feet. McKenzie-Willamette CEO David Butler has said the facility could open as early as 2027. The site would replace parking-lot space on Grant Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, putting emergency care in the middle of a busy west Eugene corridor rather than on the outskirts of Lane County’s urban core.

That location is also the source of some of the sharpest concerns. The Chambers Westside Neighborhood Association has said residents understand the need for emergency care but want clearer answers on why the West Eugene parcel was chosen and whether other locations were considered. The group also warned that emergency traffic could conflict with Eugene’s planned neighborhood greenway on Grant Street, where the city has already set aside $196,000 for traffic calming and pedestrian-friendly improvements.

Traffic counts have fueled the debate. Local reporting has said about 20,000 cars pass the site each day, while city-cited ODOT data put the broader 6th and 7th Avenue corridor near 49,000 vehicles daily. For patients in a crisis, though, the biggest change would be simpler: a trip to West Eugene instead of Springfield, if the project clears its remaining approvals and the city lets construction begin.

McKenzie-Willamette’s recent move to become in-network with Trillium Community Health Plan, effective Jan. 1, 2026, also widened its financial reach across Lane County. For Eugene-area families still living with the loss of the University District ER, the question now is whether this project becomes a true access point or just another planning milestone on the way to 2027.