Public not muzzled on freeway

Mar. 2, 2006 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic  

The South Mountain Citizens Advisory Team hit another publicity snag last week when its Sierra Club representative withdrew. Michelle Pulich Stewart said her reason for quitting was the lack of public input allowed by the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Although that's not entirely accurate - more on that later - the public perception of openness is critical to this process. The citizens team is charged with studying aspects of the South Mountain leg of Loop 202 and advising ADOT on whether and where to build the freeway. Until recently, comments by people not on the team were read at the end of the meetings. ADOT ended that practice because the meetings ran too late.

By seeming to undermine that public input process and muzzle the audience, ADOT gave the Sierra Club an opportunity to posture about building the freeway. Yet it's hard to imagine a freeway that the Sierra Club would approve, as its mission is to protect the environment above all else. Advocating for mass transportation and conservation are more in line with the Sierra Club than building another stretch of freeway.  

But the issue on the table at the citizens team meetings is a freeway connecting Interstate 10 at Pecos Road with I-10 in west Phoenix. While it's true that ADOT recently announced the team would not listen to public comments at the end of their meetings, citizens are still encouraged to submit their questions in writing. Those questions are then answered on the team's Web site or at the next meeting.

Why the change? It's a matter of logistics. The team was being kept late to hear what amounted to soliloquies and rants from repetitive sources against the freeway. Written comments were often long, rambling statements rather than pertinent questions. Some audience members refused to behave within civil boundaries and made catcalls that disrupted meetings. Meetings were digressing out of control. These people knew how to use and abuse the public input process.

The volunteers on the team deserve better than that. They have been donating their time and energy for as long as four years toward the goal of advising ADOT on the South Mountain leg of Loop 202.

It should be clear to everyone in this Valley by now that there are many people in Ahwatukee Foothills who do not want the Loop 202 to run along Pecos Road. Their reasons - noise, traffic, pollution, unsightliness, possible crime avenue - have been cited and documented. We've got the message. ADOT's got it. And most certainly, the unpaid volunteers of the South Mountain Citizens Advisory Team have got it.

But the team members still need to hear other information, such as what the people in Tolleson, Avondale and west Phoenix need and want in the freeway. They need to assimilate stacks of information and make a recommendation to ADOT.

They need to be allowed to focus on that task rather than listen - again and again - to the people who have fully made the point that they do not want this freeway.