On June 5 at midnight at the northernmost tip of Goodyear, Kerrie Zakaras shifted awake. A cement truck sped through Camelback Road behind her home, startling her.
Fourty-four decibels, her phone read in her bedroom. Higher than last week, she thought to herself.
While outside, 20 additional trucks passed by, seemingly on a night run. Her phone camera struggled to capture an image as they sped by. Like her neighbors nearby, she periodically documents the activity.
“Goodyear allowed the truckers association to bully them at the detriment of the residents. We now have a huge truck cross dock where a golf course was once and a Circle K,” she said. “Now trucks are up and down Camelback causing a black soot on outdoor furniture and noise that exceeds 80 decibels inside homes that are not even backing Camelback Road.”
Over on the Litchfield Park side of Camelback, residents have similar grievances. Residents voiced concerns about the traffic noise and pollution in a December town hall.
In 2022, Litchfield Park and the county signed a jurisdictional agreement annexing a 2-mile stretch of Camelback Road from 127th Avenue to North Village Parkway. The agreement stipulated the stretch would be transferred to the city and subject to Litchfield’s truck restriction if found necessary, pending comprehensive study.
That was until Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill preventing truck restrictions on major arterial roads, even if it conflicted with municipal sovereignty.
Hobbs signed the bill four months after the Arizona Trucking Association and Arizona Rock Products Association donated $20,000 combined to her inaugural fund. Unlike campaign donations, the inaugural fund allows the governor to use proceeds for gifts, dignitary visits or at-large political campaign spending.
The legislative support from state reps highlights legal issues revolving around city sovereignty and concerns of political money influencing development decisions amid a growing industrial and pollution presence in the West Valley.
Maricopa County zoning and development board Chairperson Lucas Schlosser, having previously served on the Goodyear zoning board for six years, said he couldn’t remember when Goodyear zoning denied a project. He used that rationale to dismiss the written opposition Goodyear submitted to the county before he voted to approve the dock.
Cross dock located in Goodyear as the sun sets. Michael McDaniel, Daily Independent
Schlosser alluded to the Goodyear zoning being a rubber stamp for developers. The city is recognized as one of the fastest growing in the nation, sometimes at the detriment of traffic and safety, according to a city survey presented to the board June 5.
However, recent opposition to the explosion of development has been trending for Goodyear residents.
From 2021 to 2023, commercial growth has seen a decrease in approval among a resident survey of 17%, according to Councilman Bill Stipp in a June work session. The session analyzed a survey of Goodyear residents and what they thought were crucial focuses in Goodyear’s development.
“If you look at well-planned residential growth from ‘21 to ‘23, we decreased 11%,” he said. “Well-planned commercial growth, we decreased 17% in customer point of view. Overall appearance, if you go back from 2019 through today, we're down 10%. We're down from 82% to 74%. So, we're down 8% from the last survey to this survey, and code enforcement is down 11% from 64% to 53%. "
Stipp also said council was inundated with emails from residents about the design of an upcoming project.
In May, Pebble Creek residents were outraged the Goodyear development and zoning board recommended for approval a Circle K truck stop. The approval would see a truck stop to operate within 100 feet of the retirement community’s pickleball court, and right by a community’s parking lot.
The developer withdrew the convenience store application June 23 amid community backlash from Goodyear’s Pebble Creek retirement community.
The Goodyear zoning and development board operates on a volunteer basis. They are afforded no salary for the service. The city of Goodyear provided the following comment in response to the Camelback issue.
“As one of the nation's fastest-growing cities, an increase in residential and commercial traffic is expected,” the city wrote. “Investments to maintain our existing infrastructure while developing new infrastructure to keep up with our growth is a top priority. Given that Camelback Road serves as an arterial road, designed to facilitate the movement of high volumes of traffic, it’s occasionally necessary for trucks to utilize it for local deliveries. The city has police officers dedicated to commercial vehicle enforcement and have installed traffic signs to alert drivers of roadways where commercial traffic is prohibited with more being added this upcoming fiscal year. The 45 mph speed limit on Camelback Road is posted per city standard for an arterial roadway and in line with other Valley cities that this road traverses. Maricopa Association of Governments is conducting the Southwest Valley – Camelback Road Truck Study to evaluate the impacts of truck traffic in the region, which will help determine the need for additional ordinances.”
Conserving Litchfield Park
The pro-truck bill signed by Hobbs, Senate Bill 1097, aimed to nullify local truck restrictions if “a major arterial street that has a truck restriction does not provide through access between two or more jurisdictions.”
The bill was brought to the House transportation committee during the legislative session in March. Representatives from the Arizona Rock Products Association and the Arizona Truck Association argued to state representatives against the Camelback restriction, claiming it hindered business owners' bottom lines.
‘Tony Bradley, CEO of the Arizona Trucking Association, even brought a diagram outlining a required detour and the travel increase from the Litchfield-based restriction.
Rep. Leezah Sun, however, said the bill is being justified by the committee in the vein of Litchfield Park only, and not in the purview of the state.
“We have to allow our local municipality to dictate their own community's well-being,” she said. “This is their decision. We don't want to take away local municipality power in decision-making. This will affect the entire state of Arizona. Do you want your local communities to be dictated by this one bill? Because this is not about Litchfield. This is about the entire state of Arizona. We will create a precedent that will cause more harm than good.”
Litchfield Park had two legislative members on the committee, Rep. Steve Montenegro and Rep. Leezah Sun. Montenegro was notably absent during the committee session.
Litchfield Park’s Democratic representative, Sun, voted against the bill passing twice. Once during the transportation committee’s vote and once during the house as a whole.
Montenegro and his fellow Litchfield conservative state representative, Rep. Austin Smith, voted yes on the bill in the final House vote.
Litchfield Park Mayor Thomas L. Schoaf told the Daily Independent that he was disappointed that the Legislature and the governor elected to protect private trucking interests over the health and safety of his residents. He also said the bill personified the type of legislation the Arizona constitution framers disapproved of.
“A law targeting one specific road in one Arizona city, for the benefit of private entities and should be vetoed for this reason alone,” Schoaf said in his veto request letter to Hobbs.
Schoaf specifically references Article 4 Part 2 Section 19 of the Arizona Consitution that forbids the Legislature from enacting laws “[l]aying out, opening, altering or vacating roads, plats, streets, alleys and public squares.”
Some residents said they have lived in the Litchfield Greens area for decades and have shared concerns about the city’s expansion multiple times. They claim big trucks use the road too frequently, which creates too much noise and causes diesel exhaust to seep into their homes.
A January study in Environmental Health showed even small amounts of exposure to diesel exhaust can result in adverse changes in brain function.
Additionally, according to scientists from the Environmental Defense Fund and Kaiser Permanente, seniors who lived near high concentrations of traffic-related air pollution ended up in emergency rooms more often. Those seniors saw higher incidences of heart disease, asthma and other related illnesses.
The forthcoming MAG study may opine on health impacts. However, Zakaras said she and her neighbors are taking matters into their own hands.
“I talked to an air quality professor at Purdue University in Indiana. And he hooked me up with a company that is sending me these filter tags,” she said. “And we can tag them throughout the community and start recording air quality to show how bad it is.”
Hobbs, Smith and Montenegro’s offices were contacted May 25, and have not provided any comments for press.
The Arizona Rock Products Association did not furnish any comment when contacted in June.
Tony Bradley from the ATA said he did use the city of Litchfield Park as an example but only for state-wide illustrative purposes.
"Truck route restrictions increase transportation costs, which are ultimately passed on to the consumer," he said. "Additionally, the trucking industry in Arizona paid approximately $685 million approximately in federal and state roadway taxes yearly. We do not believe it is unreasonable to give truck access to major arterial roads that are designed for major traffic and for promoting commerce between jurisdictions."
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