Gila River Community to vote on South Mountain freeway

Residents of the Gila River Indian Community will vote Feb. 7 on whether to allow the controversial South Mountain Freeway extension on tribal land. While a favorable vote on relocation wouldn't necessarily guarantee the freeway would be put there, the vote offers likely the last best hope to Ahwatukee Foothills opponents of the project, as well as to tribal leaders who contend the currently proposed freeway path would damage sacred land. The vote also would likely bring some finality to planning a project that was first proposed in 1985. Current plans for the $1.9 billion extension of Loop 202 would link west Phoenix to Chandler with a 22-mile, eight-lane freeway along Pecos Road. The freeway would take out a church and more than 100 homes in Ahwatukee. It would also cut through three ridges in the South Mountain preserve, which are religiously and culturally significant to the Gila River tribe. The reservation alignment would be on flat, undeveloped land and would not require the destruction of mountains or buildings. However, the state would have to negotiate to obtain several privately owned tracts of land along that route.

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