Gila River Indian Reservation orders police investigation of the Maricopa Association of Governments (Phoenix: hotel)

[Pink Jazz]

According to this article:
Tribe calls for criminal investigation into freeway development group | KJZZ.org

The Gila River Indian Reservation is ordering police investigation of the Maricopa Association of Governments, who collected signatures for a re-vote on the South Mountain Freeway.

Clearly the GRIC tribal council is acting in bad faith here. If I were the MAG, I would countersue the GRIC tribal council and take it to the U.S. Supreme Court, because the GRIC Tribal Council would absolutely not win in such a lawsuit. Fact is, in the last election the "No Build" option was added illegally and was never a valid option. If the GRIC Tribal Council wants to break federal laws, they might as well lose ALL of their land.

[CodyW]

GRIC is realizing they're losing the battle, and are trying to point fingers. We all saw this coming..

[swbrotha100]

I wish the Gila River members would look at how the Salt River community dealt with Loop 101 through their land. I think they could do similar things with a Loop 202 (South Mountain) extension. It's not like they're not already doing heavy development along their northern boundary anyway.

[azdr0710]

Originally Posted by swbrotha100

I wish the Gila River members would look at how the Salt River community dealt with Loop 101 through their land. I think they could do similar things with a Loop 202 (South Mountain) extension. It's not like they're not already doing heavy development along their northern boundary anyway.

very good point....only argument would be that the SW-side alignment of the proposed 202 is nowhere near already-developed land.....I presume your point has already been brought up among the GRIC as a "pro" for allowing it....or it could be a "con" to some, too

[swbrotha100]

The east-west alignment of a future Loop 202 (from roughly 51st Ave to 40th St) is the most controversial part of the South Mountain Freeway. At 51st Ave, their Vee Quiva Casino is being expanded to include a hotel. This is currently under construction. There is planned development on 40th St just south of Pecos Rd. You have Wild Horse Pass Casino/Hotel and Phoenix Premium Outlets . There are already various other businesses as far east as the Kyrene Rd area.

On a side note, when the Gila River members wanted to build a new Lone Butte Casino, they originally wanted to build it at Gilbert Rd and Hunt Hwy. It would have been just as isolated as the current Vee Quiva is now. Political and public pressure got them to build the new casino at its current location.

Obviously things could have been a lot different today if Phoenix had done the planning that Chandler and Gilbert did with their sections of Loop 202 (ie preserving a freeway alignment). If there was better planning, I'm pretty sure a freeway along current Pecos would look similar to Loop 202 in Chandler between I-10 and Loop 101, along the reservation boundary.