2. Procedural Background
The County filed this application on July 1, 2004, seeking to construct an at-grade pedestrian crossing of Union Pacific tracks, primarily to serve the 70 or 80 children who live near 16th Street1 and who on weekdays go to and from their homes and the Lillian Larson Elementary School. According to the County, rapid growth of housing west of the proposed crossing has caused more and more children to use a dirt path across the tracks as a direct route to the school. The application was protested by Union Pacific, which maintained that children could be routed to an existing road crossing at 14th Street, which could be improved for pedestrians at less cost than building the new crossing.
Following the protest, this proceeding was reassigned from the Consumer Protection and Safety Division (CPSD) to the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Division on September 3, 2004. No prehearing conference was conducted, but the parties in informal telephone conferences with the assigned ALJ sought and were given additional time to negotiate a settlement with the help of CPSD's Rail Crossings Engineering Section (RCES). When those efforts failed, the parties exchanged written testimony and participated in a public participation hearing in the community on April 19, 2006, followed by two days of hearing on April 20 and 21, 2006. The Commission heard from 10 witnesses and received 38 exhibits into evidence. Briefs were filed on June 12, 2006, and reply briefs were filed on June 26, at which time the matter was deemed submitted for Commission consideration.
1 16th Street does not cross over the Union Pacific railroad tracks. 16th Street ends at the Union Pacific right-of-way, and pedestrians are on Union Pacific property when they cross the railroad tracks. The use of the term "16th Street crossing" in the application and in this decision refer to the crossing in the vicinity of 16th Street.
