Tribal Community Sues Over Phoenix-Area Freeway Plans

The proposed South Mountain Freeway would link Laveen in southwest Phoenix with Chandler by extending Loop 202 for 22 miles. The route would border tribal lands, and despite years of planning and community engagement, still provoked a lawsuit by the Gila River Indian Community. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday [June 30, 2015], contends that state and federal officials failed to 'consider adequately the significant harm the freeway would inflict on the environment and on historical and cultural resources,''" reports Chris Coppola.

South Mountain, which the freeway would cross, is one of the most important and sacred natural resources for the tribal community that lives in the area.

"I get it," writes columnist Joanna Allhands in an op-ed following the news of the lawsuit. "South Mountain Freeway at this point is a joke, a farce, a dream. The weathered sign on Pecos Road denoting the future freeway seems like a monument to bad planning and inaction."

Despite her doubts about the plans for the new freeway, Allhands is still skeptical about the lawsuit's claims that officials did not adequately plan the route during the process of creating a Final Environmental Impact Statement.  

Allhands also expresses a willingness to give up on the plans, writing, "maybe, at this point, we should just drop the whole idea and let traffic continue to build on Interstate 10. Or maybe transportation officials should start talking more about building that insane super-freeway extension on I-10 around the Broadway Curve that would create separate lanes for local and regional traffic."