N.Y. Railroad Law § 91: Alteration or rehabilitation of existing crossing

§ 91. Alteration or rehabilitation of existing crossing. The mayor or

city manager and common council of any city, the president or mayor and

trustees of any village, the town board of any town, the board of

supervisors or county executive and the county legislature of any county

having jurisdiction over street, avenue, highway or road which crosses

or is crossed by a surface railroad at grade, below grade or above grade

by structures heretofore constructed, or any surface railroad

corporation whose railroad crosses or is crossed by a street, avenue,

highway or road at grade, below or above grade, may bring their petition

in writing to the commissioner of transportation, therein alleging that

public interest requires rehabilitation, an alteration in the manner of

such crossing, its approaches, the method of crossing, the location of

the crossing, a change in the existing structure by which such crossing

is made, the closing and discontinuance of a crossing and the diversion

of the travel thereon to another street, avenue, highway road or

crossing, or if not practicable to change such crossing from grade,

below grade or above grade or to close or discontinue the same, the

opening of an additional crossing for the partial diversion of travel

from the grade, below grade or above grade crossing and praying that the

same may be ordered. Upon any such petition being brought the

commissioner of transportation shall appoint a time and place for

hearing the petition, and shall give such notice thereof as he shall

judge reasonable, of not less than ten days, however, to such

petitioner, the railroad corporation, the municipality in which such

crossing is situated, and if such crossing is in whole or in part in an

incorporated village having not to exceed twelve hundred inhabitants,

also to the supervisor or supervisors of the town or towns in which such

crossing is situated, and in all cases to the owners of the lands

adjoining such crossing and adjoining that part of the street, avenue,

highway or road to be changed in grade or location or to be

discontinued, or the land to be opened for a new crossing and to such

other parties deemed by him to be interested in the proceeding. The

commissioner of transportation shall give public notice of said hearing;

and upon such notice and after a hearing or hearings the commissioner of

transportation shall determine what alterations or changes, if any,

shall be made. The decision of the commissioner of transportation

rendered in any proceeding under this section shall be communicated,

after final hearing, to the petitioner, the railroad corporation, the

municipal corporation and all other parties who appeared at said hearing

by counsel or in person. Any person aggrieved by such decision, or by a

decision made pursuant to sections eighty-nine and ninety, and who was a

party to said proceeding, may within sixty days appeal therefrom to the

appellate division of the supreme court in the department in which such

crossing is situated, and to the court of appeals, in the same manner

and with like effect as is provided in the case of appeals from an order

of the supreme court. This section shall not apply to a state highway or

any other highway upon which the commissioner of transportation proposes

to alter an existing crossing of a railroad pursuant to any section of

the highway law.