TVA says land swap means economic development
Although objections to the project to build more than 600 luxury homes, a golf course and boat slips on pristine Nickajack Lake shoreline have come from tribal groups who consider the land sacred and former property owners forced to sell to TVA decades ago, the discussion at this week’s board meeting will focus on economic development.
“To me, it is just an absolute win in every direction,” said Howell Moss, mayor of Marion County, a largely rural county just west of Chattanooga. “The tax base from new homes would dramatically help us” boost funding for public schools.
The TVA board’s two members, Chairman Bill Baxter and Skila Harris, did not return telephone messages seeking comment. A third board position is vacant.
“You are bringing a lot of economic benefits not only to Marion County but that whole area,” TVA Vice President Bridgette Ellis said. “Our policy is we manage those lands for multiple benefits: conservation, recreation and economic development.”
She said the development represents an “increase in jobs, tax base, commercial development and tax revenue.”
Baxter and Harris will be asked to approve for auction 578 government-owned acres alongside Interstate 24 west of Chattanooga. The only known bidder: Chattanooga developer John “Thunder” Thornton, a University of Tennessee trustee who is also a generous donor to political campaigns.
Thornton has proposed swapping to TVA about 1,100 acres, including a Tennessee River island also in Marion County. TVA specified that its land be auctioned “for appropriate exchange of land and other compensation.”
Beneficiaries of the Republican developer’s generosity with politicians include Gov. Phil Bredesen. The Democratic governor endorsed the land swap in a letter to TVA officials months after his campaign account received $2,500 from Thornton.
Some American Indian groups contend that developing the TVA land next to Little Cedar Mountain would ruin the site of a historically valuable former tribal settlement.
Tom Kunesh, a Lakota tribe descendant and spokesman for the Sacred Little Cedar Mountain Defense Coalition that opposes the swap, said last week that approval would definitely mean a court fight.
“I think heritage tourism is more advantageous and nondestructive in the long run than tearing it up for the rich and famous,” said Corky Allen, president of the Intratribal Sacred Land Trust. “It is not yours anymore when it goes from public to private. No one knows that more than the American Indian.”
Also, some farm families forced to sell out when TVA developed the hydroelectric system say the utility should not trade away what it got by eminent domain in order for a developer to make money.
A cultural survey funded by Thornton shows the land he has proposed swapping to TVA — 615-acre Cedar Mountain, a 260-acre farm and the 220-acre island — is more archaeologically and environmentally valuable than the TVA land.
The Tennessee Wildlife Federation supports Thornton’s proposal. Director Mike Butler has said it would be a gain of “acreage, conservation values and a better situation in terms of public benefits.”
University of Tennessee conservation and wildlife researcher Billy Minser opposes selling the land, contending it is unfair to the former owners.
“To now sell those lands for private profit and private use while the public is excluded is in violation of the spirit of the law of eminent domain and I think unethical and immoral,” Minser said. He said surveys show the public wants TVA lakeshores kept “public and wild but that doesn’t seem to matter.”
Ellis said the TVA staff recommendation was based on environmental and cultural heritage research. She said the proposed public walking trails and marina in the project would provide new recreational access to the land and water. A 50-foot development buffer would be required along the waterfront.
Baxter previously said such development proposals had to be weighed individually because TVA did not have a policy to sell land. If there is a split vote, the two board members decide what happens, TVA spokesman Gil Francis said.
TVA controls about 230,000 shoreline acres along the 652-mile Tennessee River system.
———
On the Net:
TVA: http://www.tva.gov