Surrounded to the northwest by South Mountain Park, blocked to the east by I-10 and to the south by the Gila River Indian Community, Ahwatukee Foothills is geographically isolated from the city which it is part of, Phoenix. Due to its relatively few access points (mainly through a few bridges across Interstate 10), it has been called The World’s Largest Cul-de-sac.

This could potentially change, however, if the hotly contested South Mountain Freeway is built along the southern edge along what is now Pecos Road; this freeway would provide a truck bypass around downtown Phoenix and connect Ahwatukee to the west valley cities of Laveen, Avondale and Glendale. This freeway is presently under review for environmental impact and has been challenged because of its high cost (currently 4 times the original projected amount), its proximity to schools and homes, its actual value as a useful commuter route (it would be principally used as a bypass around downtown Phoenix by trucks traveling from the east and south on their way to Los Angeles via Interstate 10) and the controversy surrounding the required demolition of over 250 homes, businesses and churches as well as the leveling of a section of South Mountain itself, which the Gila Indian Community claims has religious value as well as its intrinsic value to the Phoenix community as a whole as it is part of the world’s largest city park and one of the Phoenix “Points of Pride”.