By a 5-to-2 vote, the Wasco County Planning Commission approved Union Pacific’s application to add four miles of mainline railroad track on either side of Mosier.  Commissioners spent four hours going over the application and the planning staff’s recommendation to approve it with numerous conditions.  The Commission made a number of changes to those conditions, in particular removing those that would have required Union Pacific to stay within the current volume of train traffic coming through the Gorge.  They also modified requirements for working with tribes on river access points, removing some specifics to allow the railroad and the tribes to work together to develop solutions.  A hearing three weeks ago had brought substantial opposition to the Union Pacific application, and an appeal to the Wasco County Commission is expected.  The organization Friends of the Columbia Gorge has been opposed to the project, citing National Scenic Area ordinance requirements, while Union Pacific has claimed it went through the County planning process voluntarily because state and local permit requirements cannot be applied to any facility that is integrally related to the railroad’s transportation operations.  Planning Commissioner Brad DeHart said at the beginning of the meeting he had never felt more insignificant as a Commissioner, with the legal matters surrounding this issue to be played out on a different stage.