Phoenix voters could soon decide the fate of future light rail expansions, including the South Central light rail.
Anti-light rail advocacy group and Phoenix political committee, Building a Better Phoenix filed a ballot initiative at City Hall Wednesday to stop light rail expansions and to instead use the funds towards infrastructure improvements.
The new ballot measure would stop any expansions included in Prop. 104, a sales tax voters approved in 2015 to fund transportation infrastructure which included multiple light rail expansion plans.
The group brought boxes of over 40,000 signatures, almost double the roughly 20,500 signatures needed to get their initiative qualified for the March ballot, to the front doors of City Hall. Before wheeling the boxes upstairs, the group held a press conference touting the message: “Light rail costs too much and gives too little.”
While the ballot measure calls to stop all expansions, Building a Better Phoenix formed as controversy emerged connected to the proposed 5.5 mile South Central Phoenix light rail expansion earlier this year.
“No one told us of the negative effects light rail would have on the South Phoenix community,” Susan Gudino, the treasurer of Building a Better Phoenix, said. “Ending the expansion of light rail will free up billions of dollars that can be spent on fixing city streets and sidewalks, expanding bus and Dial-a-Ride Services, improved lighting, and other much-needed transportation projects,” Gudino said.
The measure also calls for the creation of a Citizens Transportation Committee to review transportation expenditures by the city.
“We hope these 40,000 signatures will send a clear message to the Federal Transit Administration to delay funding any grant money under the New Starts Program,” Rachel Palopoli, owner of Planet Recycling in south Phoenix, said. “To all the members of City Council and those at Valley Metro: the citizens of Phoenix have spoken. The people in South Phoenix will not be fooled again.”
A fraught history
The dispute about the South Central extension began in early 2018 when a group of business owners in south Phoenix increasingly voiced concern that the city had not properly telegraphed the two-lane reduction the project would entail.
This prompted City Council in June to call for six community-wide meetings to inform residents and requested an analysis by Valley Metro into the possibility of preserving a four-lane configuration.
The results presented to council found the four-lane configuration would have effects like slowing traffic, decreasing tree coverage and slashing bike lanes as well as the speed limit. City Council, under a crunch for federal funding deadlines in November, voted 6-2 in favor of the two-lane extension this September.
“The reason that City Council backtracked on that was that Valley Metro didn’t do the job they were supposed to do the first time,” Palopoli said. “The problem was the design was already done for two lanes. So now that the community expressed an interest in doing four lanes, it was a little too late.”
RELATED: Council votes to move forward with two lane South Phoenix light rail extension
Building a Better Phoenix opposes future light rail extensions entirely, regardless of lanes. The South Central extension is the closest one planned, and the organization says the four-year construction period and lane decrease would jeopardize local businesses.
The group’s supporters at the press conference encouraged investment in the current bus system as an alternative means of public transportation. Palopoli pointed to the flexibility of the bus system, not tied to a track, as the reason why it would be the best transit option for Phoenix’s growing population.
“We need a system that will grow with the community and can be movable and the light rail cannot do that,” Palopoli said.
“It costs too much, gives too little.”
Contact the reporter at Rebecca.Spiess@asu.edu.
