Background and Procedural History

The City was incorporated in 1992, and is rapidly being built on what was previously vacant or lightly developed commercial and industrial property in a rural area of southern Napa County. Its population currently exceeds 14,000, but the City is expected to grow significantly in the next several years with the construction of several entirely new residential neighborhoods within its boundaries. This is expected to cause greatly increased vehicular traffic volumes and new traffic circulation patterns.

The part of the City involved in this proceeding is bounded on the west side by State Route 29, a major north-south highway between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Napa Valley; on the north side by the east-west main rail line of CN; on the south side by American Canyon Road, a major east-west arterial that connects Highway 29 with Interstate 80, residential neighborhoods, and a large theme park and county fairgrounds in Vallejo; and on the west side by Flosdon Road (which is to be renamed Newell Road), a planned north-south arterial that will be situated parallel to Highway 29.

Bisecting this rectangular area in a more or less straight line from north to south is CN's rail line between Napa Junction, located on its main line to the north, and Vallejo. The Vallejo branch is situated a short distance from, and parallel to, Highway 29. The City's General Plan provides for the creation of a new town center on the west side of the CN tracks, and a new residential neighborhood on a gently rolling hillside above the east side of the tracks. The plan also provides for a series of east-west arterial connectors between Highway 29 and Flosden Road to facilitate traffic circulation between different parts of the community, and to afford access to Flosden Road, relieving the traffic burden on Highway 29.

The Vallejo line is a segment of the nineteenth century rail route between San Francisco and Sacramento via steamer connections in Vallejo which long ago ceased to serve that function. The line now serves local customers in American Canyon and Vallejo, including the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard, which was recently turned over to civilian use. CN, a short line common carrier railroad, operates the line under lease from UP.

Immediately to the north of the proposed South Napa Junction Road public crossing is a small rail yard and locomotive servicing facility. CN uses this yard for switching inbound cars destined to local customers and outbound cars that CN hauls to the UP interchange at Suisun. Immediately north of the new crossing site is the south switch of a siding with two industrial spur tracks that serve a railroad customer, Adobe Lumber Co. As the yard is currently configured, CN switches from the south end, i.e., from beyond the south switch at South Napa Junction Road. This requires CN to conduct switching operations across the existing private crossing. Both switching movements and freight train operations regularly occur over this crossing on weekdays and Saturdays.

CN and UP protested the City's requests for authority to establish the two crossings, citing safety and operational concerns. Principal among these concerns is that switching and train operations at the south end of Napa Junction Yard will conflict with vehicular traffic at the South Napa Junction Road grade crossing, causing traffic delays and a significant public safety problem because of the vastly increased volume of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The protestants also object to any increase in the number of at-grade crossings on the grounds that such an increase would violate state and federal policies that disfavor the creation of new at-grade crossings.

Although in its application the City explains that it investigated the option of building an elevated (i.e., grade-separated) crossing at South Napa Junction Road, the short distance separating Highway 29 and the CN tracks, the location of the hillside immediately to the east, and various features of the town center together constitute constraints that render a grade separated crossing at this location infeasible as a practical matter. An alternative location for the crossing at Eucalyptus Road, which is south of the proposed crossing, was also considered, but was rejected during the course of the City's planning process.

The parties conducted extensive negotiations before and after the City brought its requests before the Commission, in an effort to fashion a mutually acceptable solution to the potential problems posed by establishment of the new crossings. In December 2005 the administrative law judge vacated the original procedural schedule at the parties' request to enable them to mediate the disputed issues, but that effort was unsuccessful and the proceeding was set for hearing.

In addition to the parties that are before the Commission, other nonparty participants were involved in the settlement discussions, because they had significant interests at stake. Most notably, Standard Pacific Corp, the developer of the area in the vicinity of the Donaldson Way crossing, and American Canyon I, LLC (ACI), the developer of the area around South Napa Junction Road, will be directly affected by the final location and design of the crossings. Involving these stakeholders in resolving the dispute provided an opportunity not only for input about the design aspects, but also potential financial participation in the construction cost. In addition, although not parties to the proceeding, members of the Commission's Consumer Protection and Safety Division staff (Staff) also participated in the parties' discussion of crossing design proposals to ensure that the Commission's safety requirements were taken into consideration. The negotiations among these stakeholders produced an agreement that achieves a global solution to the dispute that goes well beyond the narrow options otherwise available to us in deciding the matter.