South Mountain freeway fight goes in new initiative

Pro-development forces are taking the South Mountain Freeway fight to tribal landowners less than a month after the Gila River Indian Community rejected putting the freeway on community land. The landowners on Thursday said they would begin circulating petitions to registered voters on tribal land in the next few days and hold a vote by this summer. Unlike the vote earlier this month, only landowners with parcels south of the proposed Pecos Road alignment would cast ballots on whether to sell their land for the freeway. The voter initiative also wouldn't require tribal government approval. The Gila River Indian Community has been opposed to the project. "In the end, the way I see it, the parkway is still in play on tribal land," said Joe Perez, a tribal member and partner in Pangea Development, a private development community. He has been working for several years on plans to develop land abutting the proposed South Mountain Freeway, which would link the Loop 202-Santan Freeway in the East Valley to Interstate 10 by looping west around South Mountain Park.

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