Growth news abounds in today’s Arizona Republic. A new shopping center along the northern frontier of Phoenix. Accelerated improvements along the route of the SR-303 freeway in Surprise. And, in Goodyear, plans for a massive expansion of the city, along with a big told-ya-so for Greg.
The map at the right illustrates Goodyear’s plan. (If you click it it will open as a PDF.)
The yellow region is the current City of Goodyear.
The purple border is the Goodyear Planning Area — the regions Goodyear currently has plans to annex.
The region within the solid black border is the proposed planning area discussed in the newspaper article, 95 square miles of new Goodyear.
The region within the dashed black border is future expansion, the Goodyear of good years yet to come.
The red dashed line is a proposed route for the SR-303 freeway running south from the I-10 to the I-8. I have known for years that this would happen, but this is the first time this shoe has dropped in an official document.
You might look at that meandering freeway route and think, “Are they drunk? Did sage Euclid live and die in vain?” But remember that the purpose of that freeway is not to move traffic but to enrich the current and future owners of the land.
The ideal freeway route is through the Federally-owned desert preserve to the west. But the freeway isn’t being built to solve a traffic problem but to create one. No one lives there now. There is no need for a freeway. But all of that privately-owned land will become developable because of the proposed freeway route — and that is what the freeway is intended to do.
That’s as may be. It’s corrupt and demented, but it’s the way things are done here — and pretty much everywhere, in one sleazy way or another. What’s interesting to me is that the West Valley map I made last week is already dated. And: It would seem that the Phoenix real estate market is quite a bit healthier than some people are willing to allow…
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, phoenix, phoenix real estate, Read more
