TVA approves swapping Nickajack shoreline to developer
Chattanooga developer John “Thunder” Thornton, the only known interested bidder, wants to erect a $450 million gated community that includes up to 1,100 high-priced homes, a golf course and boat slips.
He has proposed an 1,100-acre land swap with the federal agency to more than offset the loss of wildlife habitat and lands considered sacred to American Indian groups.
The TVA board of directors, down to two members because of a vacancy, voted unanimously to sell the Nickajack property. While anyone can bid, TVA officials acknowledged that Thornton’s comprehensive land deal will be the one to beat.
Director Skila Harris, who had been reluctant to support previous such proposals, said this one falls in line with general lake planning for Nickajack and will expand public lands for preservation and recreation.
Chairman Bill Baxter said the proposal should be a model for future development proposals along the Tennessee River because it combines economic development and conservation.
“The most important precedent that it sets is the principle that there will be no net loss of public lands,” Baxter said. “If you can do that in addition to meeting all the environmental concerns, all the archaeological concerns and you get the positive economic benefit for the community, then it is a win-win for everybody.”
Marion County Mayor Howell Moss said his community desperately needed the Nickajack Shores development for jobs and taxes to bolster the school system.
Environmental lawyer Joe McCaleb of Hendersonville argued that any private residential development will naturally reduce public access, but TVA Vice President Bridgette Ellis said public amenities actually will increase under Thornton’s plan with new walking trails, a relocated and upgraded public recreation area and an open marina.
“We decided early on that we would not propose this unless we could give the public much greater benefit than what they enjoy right now, and we have done that with our 1,100 acres,” Thornton said.
Proposal opponents said it raises old concerns about reusing lands TVA acquired, sometimes by force of eminent domain, for its hydroelectric and flood control projects along the 652-mile Tennessee River and its tributaries.
Some 82 families, including 43 owners, were displaced in the 1960s for the 6,200-acre Nickajack project. TVA bought 118 tracts for $2.5 million, or about $400 per acre.
However, Baxter said all of these people were fairly compensated at the time.
Thornton, a University of Tennessee trustee, booster and political contributor, has already invested $2.2 million in the property he wants to give TVA and thousands more in marketing studies, conservation studies and reimbursement to TVA to study his plan.
Thornton has acquired three parcels — 615-acre Little Cedar Mountain, a 260-acre farm and 220-acre Burns Island — all considered archaeologically and environmentally valuable. The Tennessee Wildlife Federation and Tennessee River Gorge Trust endorsed the plan.
Thornton said once land values are established, he’s willing to acquire more property if required to make an even swap.
“I’m very pleased. I think it’s a great victory for Marion County,” Thornton said.
TVA is facing growing pressure to open its 293,000 acres of protected shoreline to development. Although only 2 percent of that shoreline, some 7,000 acres, is classified eligible for development, TVA has shown a willingness to trade conservation land.
The agency approved a land swap in 2003 for a gated golf-course community on Tellico Lake near Knoxville. In that deal, Knoxville developer Mike Ross bought 116 conservation acres from TVA that bordered his Rarity Pointe community and gave TVA 256 undeveloped acres across the lake that had been set aside for industrial use.
Other developments are under consideration on Watts Bar Lake south of Knoxville.
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