The Bismarck Renaissance Zone Authority isn't quite ready to make any recommendations to the city commission on a Quiet Rail Zone, but it shouldn't be too much longer.

The authority met Wednesday to discuss the Quiet Rail Zone, particularly about adding crossings to the zone assessment and possible financing options.

The Quiet Rail Zone, which would be built by BNSF Railways and charged back to the city, involves improvements at the various crossings so that trains would not have to blow their horns as currently required by federal law. Early estimates place the improvements anywhere from $590,000 to $650,000 per crossing, depending if there is a pedestrian crosswalk involved.

Rick Lane, with Fargo-based SRF Inc., is conducting an assessment for four crossings, including Fraine Barracks, Third, Fifth and 12th streets at a cost of about $15,000. Planning staff found that it will cost an additional $10,702 to add the 19th, 24th and 26th street crossings to the assessment.

Planner Kim Lee said the additional crossings are outside the Tax Increment Financing District, and a new source of funding would have to be found. Authority Chairman Sandi Tabor said she would talk to Bismarck finance director Sheila Hillman about possible other funding.

Authority member George Keiser made the motion to recommend to the city commission that the additional money to be spent on the added crossings be added to the assessment, which was approved.

The city of Fargo implemented a Quiet Rail Zone at a cost of $2.2 million for eight crossings. Among the funding sources were an assessment district extending seven blocks north of the tracks and three blocks south.

The Bismarck authority is looking at tax increment district funds to pay for those crossings within the district (Third, Fifth and 12th), but the others will need another source. Lee said that the staff had discussed a tiered assessment district of two to three tiers, where those property owners closest to the tracks would pay the most.

Arguments for a citywide assessment could be made, Keiser said, but he noted that there are areas that will receive significantly greater benefit with the Quiet Rail Zone.

Authority member Curt Walth said that the tax increment district will be picking up nearly half the cost of the Quiet Rail Zone. He also brought up the question for the necessity of Fraine Barracks to be in the Quiet Rail Zone. The National Guard facility is gated and it wouldn't necessarily have to be part of the zone.

Tabor pointed out that should the area be excluded, BNSF might protest extending the process by a couple of years. It was decided to send a subcommittee, consisting of Keiser and Bruce Whittey, to talk with the National Guard about the issue.

Traffic engineer Mark Berg said that the DMVW Railroad has crossings at Divide, Rosser and Main avenues and is coming through with one or two trains a week.

"With the ethanol plant going in, there may be more trains and they are required to blow their whistles. If you are looking at a citywide assessment, perhaps you should look at these crossings," Berg said.

But city attorney Charlie Whitman and the rest of the authority didn't feel there was enough activity to warrant putting in Quiet Rail Zone crossings for DMVW.

The authority did ask the city planning and finance department staff to look at various funding options, including a special assessment tiered and untiered and a citywide assessment.

Walth said that he had been reading an article about existing Quiet Rail Zones, which questioned whether the concept really worked.

"The question is, do they work? But supposedly there is this community where a pedestrian was killed because there wasn't a whistle,"Walth said.

Whitman said that there are all sorts of visual deterrents to keep vehicles and pedestrians from crossing the tracks when a train is in the vicinity.

"What's happening here, is that people are actually walking into a train that is crossing before them, for whatever reason," Whitman said.

Tabor said the authority is still not at the point of making a recommendation to the city commission on the Quiet Rail Zone, which could include a citywide election. She's said she's hoping that at the next meeting of the authority it will be ready to make those recommendations.

"I've heard instances that there is a real concern we're losing tenants downtown because of this issue, and I hope we can keep moving forward,"Whittey said. "There seems to be an overwhelming support for the Quiet Rail Zone out there."

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 701-250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)