Tolleson stunned by group’s freeway recommendation

John Machay, staff writer
West Valley View
Apr. 27, 2006

After basking in a deluge of outside support in recent weeks, Tolleson was thrown a curve ball Thursday as a citizens committee put its stamp of approval on a freeway plan that would split the city in two and wipe out up to 545 homes.

Ending four years of debate over where to connect the future South Mountain Freeway to Interstate 10, the Citizens Advisory Team recommended the Loop 101 alignment, one of three potential alignments currently under consideration.

The committee’s recommendation was met with mixed reaction from the crowd at Laveen’s Komatke Center, which appeared to be filled mostly with opponents of either the Loop 101 alignment or the 55th Avenue option. Appearing to be not much of a factor in the deliberations was the 79th Avenue alignment, an option that has fallen out of favor in recent weeks.

Among those on hand for the announcement was Tolleson City Manager Reyes Medrano, who followed the public meeting by offering some pointed criticism about the advisory team.

“It was very obvious from the beginning what the group’s intentions were,” Medrano said. “Everyone had their own motive and their own agenda, with absolutely no consideration for decorum or the impact that it’s going to make on an entire community. There were people on that panel from the 55th Avenue area whose only concern was their own subdivision, and people from all the way out in Ahwatukee. It was clear that they didn’t have a clue as to what Tolleson is all about.”

To emphasize his point, Medrano noted that committee members often referred to Tolleson as “an adjacent community,” when in reality the 101 alignment would run right through the center of town, effectively cutting the city in two.

“There’s no adjacency about it,” he said. “It will be right on top of us.”

However, Arizona Department of Transportation spokesman Matt Burdick downplayed the significance of the Citizen Advisory Team’s recommendation, saying it will be only one of several factors that will be taken into consideration when ADOT makes its decision in June or July.

“They based their recommendation on 10 issues, while we’ll be looking at dozens more,” Burdick said. “One of the things we’ll look at that the Citizens Advisory Team did not include in their analysis is the economic impact that each connection will have on communities. In Tolleson there would be severe impacts, which is something we’re well aware of.”

While going with the 55th Avenue alignment would displace an estimated 120 houses and 78 businesses, Burdick noted that the overall economic impact on that community wouldn’t be as devastating as it would in Tolleson.

“The neighborhood around the 55th Avenue alignment is part of Phoenix, which is a much bigger city and could absorb the impact,” he said. “The impact on a city the size of Tolleson would be much more damaging. That will be something we’ll strongly consider when we make our decision a few months down the road.”

When construction wraps up in 2015, the long-planned South Mountain Freeway will complete the final leg of Loop 202, providing three lanes of travel in each direction from the West Valley to as far east as Ahwatukee. Work on the thoroughfare is expected to begin in 2009.

John Machay can be reached by e-mail at jmachay@westvalleyview.com.