Gila River tribe may hold vote on South Mountain Freeway effort

A dozen landowners on the Gila River Reservation have gathered more than 1,200 signatures from residents who support a new effort to put the South Mountain Freeway on tribal land. The signatures will be submitted to the Gila River Tribal Council next week, supporters said. The council will have 120 days to hold an election after verifying that the signatures came from registered voters. Voters would be asked whether the Loop 202 extension, currently planned to run along Pecos Road in Ahwatukee, should be built instead on privately owned reservation land south of Ahwatukee. The proposal follows a February election in which nearly half of the 1,481 residents who voted chose "no build," which Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio and others have said was never a valid option. Joseph Perez, a Gila River Reservation resident and partner at private land developer Pangea Development, called the original referendum flawed because an option to vote "no build" was insufficiently explained.

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