Unknowns about S. Mountain Freeway breeding hostility

Corinne Purtill
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 1, 2006 01:40 PM

What began as a community meeting on the proposed South Mountain Freeway took a hostile turn this week, as freeway opponents shouted at each other and audience members catcalled and heckled Arizona Department of Transportation officials.

More than 150 people gathered in the auditorium of Kyrene de los Lagos Elementary School Tuesday night for an ADOT presentation advertised to the Lakewood HOA and Lagos communities.

The state wants a final decision on the long-delayed South Mountain Freeway by late 2007, ADOT spokesman Matt Burdick told the group. The 22- to 26-mile route would link Interstate 10 in the west and east, bypassing Phoenix.

In the course of a brief presentation and in answers to public questions, ADOT officials conceded that answers to many of the Ahwatukee community's most pressing questions on the proposed freeway are still unavailable.

Negotiations with the Gila River Indian Community are ongoing, and the state can't say with certainty when they'll rule out the option of moving the southern leg of the freeway from Pecos Road to tribal lands.

No federal standards yet exist on mobile source air toxins - a form of particulate pollution of great concern to many in Ahwatukee - and engineers aren't sure how they'll address such emissions in their project.

The owners of 255 to 685 Ahwatukee homes are in limbo as debate continues on whether the freeway will be built at ground level, below-grade or not at all.

On Tuesday, frustrations at the dearth of answers spilled over into anger, in some cases directed at fellow freeway opponents.

After Burdick spoke, John D. Rodriguez of Lakewood took the microphone for a prepared speech. The Lakewood HOA board elected Rodriguez in January to fill Lakewood's long-vacant spot on the ADOT-led South Mountain Citizens Advisory Team.

Though Rodriguez has been an outspoken proponent of the "no build" option, a sea of placards from the anti-freeway group Protecting Arizona's Resources and Children sprang up when he took the floor.

"The SMCAT meeting does not speak for the residents of Lakewood! The SMCAT meeting is a sham!" called PARC founder Melanie Pai from the back of the room.

After delivering a 15-minute speech critical of ADOT and advocating the no-build ("For my Latino friends - No way, Jose"), Rodriguez took a shot at Lagos principal Jim Strogen.

Strogen is also a member of the citizens advisory team, and has repeatedly said that the freeway should be moved south of Pecos Road and farther from his school.

"Jim Strogen, my community goes to your school and pays your salary. If you invite me and my community to a meeting, you're not going to shut us out," Rodriguez said shortly before Strogen attempted to end Rodriguez's monologue and open the meeting to public questions.

He then pressed the principal to restate his stance on the freeway, prompting at least one member of the audience to shout at Strogen, "Are you with us or against us?"

Rodriguez said after the meeting that he questioned Strogen because a number of Lakewood residents were curious about the principal's position. He was also under the impression that the meeting was going to be held in a different format that gave more control to Lakewood.

After the meeting, Strogen seemed slightly baffled at the suddenly hostile atmosphere.

"My position all along has been, as principal of this school, I worry about air pollution, noise pollution, traffic hazards, homes destroyed," Strogen said. "All those things make me crazy. . . . I don't want it in my backyard."

The public question period got off to a rocky start when Strogen initially insisted upon holding the microphone for PARC's Pai instead of handing it over to her, prompting angry shouts from the crowd and a furious outburst from Pai.

"This is what happens! They don't want to give me the mic!" Pai said before being handed the microphone.

She criticized ADOT for not working with health agencies to determine the freeway's health impacts and the failure to address several studies that link freeway pollution to negative health effects.

"This is a show! This is ridiculous. These people don't have to be patronized like this!" she said before stepping down.

After that, nearly every answer from ADOT was met with heckles from the crowd. Some expressed frustration over the lack of solid air pollution data and firm answers for homeowners who aren't sure if or when their property will be taken.

Others called "This is our time!" and "You're fired!" at engineers and consultants who stepped up to answer audience members' questions.

Consultant Amy Edwards' assertion that only 10 percent of the anticipated 160,000 vehicles per day the freeway is expected to serve would be truck traffic was met with "That's baloney!" and "A lot of bull!"

Lakewood resident Joe Debbins suggested that state and regional transportation planners switch their focus from freeways to rail. PARC member Julie Light said she was worried about potential hazardous material spills near schools from trucks on the freeway. Ahwatukee's unique geography made the area more vulnerable to pollutant hazards, she said.

"It's different here. It's not the same as in Chandler or Gilbert. It's flat there," she said.

Pai said after the meeting that she was disappointed in the state's planning process.

"These people (in the community) don't have a real voice anyway," she said. "They've been crying no build for years, and no one's listening."