The Salt Lake City Council tonight will consider starting eminent domain proceedings on five properties as part of an effort to quiet trains through the city's Poplar Grove neighborhood.

The Grant Tower project will straighten a rail line that has caused a bottleneck for trains in the area west of The Gateway. It will also make space for City Creek to be brought to the surface, and for commuter-rail lines that will eventually run between Salt Lake City and Brigham City.

Since 2001, Union Pacific trains have been using a previously abandoned line parallel to 900 South in order to bypass two 90-degree turns that logjam the Grant Tower line. The result has been noisy, fast trains zipping through once-quiet neighborhoods.

Union Pacific in February filed for a federal permit to stop running trains on the 900 South line, the first step toward redirecting the railroad's freight-train paths. Union Pacific acted after Salt Lake City, the Utah Transit Authority, the state Legislature and the federal government all agreed to pitch in funds for the realignment.

Most of the land in the area is used for commercial, semi-industrial uses like woodworking studios and wrought-iron shops.

The city has worked out land-purchase agreements with several property owners in the realignment area, wrote D.J. Baxter, a mayoral adviser who has headed up the Grant Tower project, in a letter to Deputy Mayor Rocky Fluhart.

But a handful of properties in the area around 800 West and South Temple are ones "whose timely acquisition may require use of the city's eminent domain authority," Baxter wrote. "As might be expected, some property owners disagree with our appraisals, and in a few cases, have requested a second appraisal."

Numerous attempts by the Deseret Morning News to contact the landowners for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Eminent-domain laws require cities to pay landowners fair market value for property being condemned for public use and then help them relocate. Eminent domain is used when the city and property owners can't agree on a purchase price, relocation plans or other elements of a land deal.

Baxter wrote that he still holds out hope that deals can be worked out with the remaining landowners. If that happens, the eminent-domain proceedings will immediately stop, he said.

Construction on parts of the realignment could begin as soon as December, so the land needs to be secured quickly, he added.

Councilman Van Turner, whose district includes much of the Grant Tower and 900 South lines, agreed.