ERIE, Mich. - Beyond the shade trees draped over Madge Ausmus' back porch, soybeans grow in fields that have belonged to her family for generations. On either side of her Erie Township home live relatives whose houses were built over the years on lots split off from the original Burgard homestead along Erie Road. "This property was ours before Michigan became a state," Mrs. Ausmus said. Beyond those soybeans lie three railroad tracks, the closest one belonging to the Canadian National Railway. The presence of that CN track is a key to a conflicting - and controversial - vision for...