TVA Reverses Course On Development

TVA's decision at last not to sell huge tracts of land at Nickajack and Tellico lakes for private resorts, marinas, golf and housing developments is a welcome reaffirmation of its larger public responsibility to preserve key public land for public benefit. It signals a reawakening at TVA to what makes the agency unique and worthy itself of preservation.

This decision of course could have been made much earlier. None of the reasons TVA advanced Monday to explain its reversal on the development proposals are new. They simply validate the core of critics' arguments since TVA unveiled the development concepts.

Those who opposed private development of a 740-acre tract on Little Cedar Mountain at Nickajack Lake and an 1,800-acre tract at Tellico Lake cited similar reasons. Among them were preservation of important public lands and Native American heritage sites and protection of resources and habitat.

But the central theme has always been a matter of guiding philosophy. It is that TVA's public lands, taken from private property owners by eminent domain to serve broad public goals, should remain available for enduring public use, access and preservation. Years after their acquisition, the choicest lands should not be sold to private developers just because TVA needs cash, seeks to diminish its stewardship responsibilities, or now arbitrarily holds private development as a higher public good.

TVA's perception of this fundamental trust somehow got misplaced. As the era of electric utility deregulation began unfolding a few years ago, board chairman Craven Crowell mistakenly focused on the notion of making TVA "America's power company"-- both inside and outside TVA's current jurisdiction.

Selling electricity submerged stewardship and resource management priorities. Mr. Crowell even proposed to end TVA's receipt of federal funds and disperse stewardship duties.

That angered constituents, Congress and the region's competing power distributors, and rightly so. TVA was not created just to generate electricity. That was, in fact, a peripheral function in its charter; its main original responsibilities were flood control and resource management and protection.

While it is true that the Tennessee Valley is no longer the deforested, flood-prone region that TVA was established to improve, TVA cannot simply abandon its public heritage and sell off prime chunks of land without destroying its continuing reason for being. Its historical success has created not only its legacy, but a continuing responsibility that today distinguishes it from private utilities.

That is partly why TVA's attempts first to sell Little Cedar Mountain, and then prime land around the Tellico reservoir, aggravated the backlash that accompanied TVA's proposal to renege on its charter duties. Its arrogance in pursuit of development -- it refused for the first year to identify the development company with which it was negotiating on Little Cedar Mountain -- exacerbated public dissent.

In the wake of that backlash, TVA seems to be regaining its balance and rediscovering a larger sense of mission. It is beginning to remember that while economic development is important, it is not TVA's sole function. As TVA's vice president for resource stewardship, Ruben Hernandez, said Monday, "TVA's mission is multi-purpose. The key is to balance the use of these lands for the best interest of all."

Other factors figure in this decision. With two development proposals in play, TVA apparently provoked more criticism than it could stand. The second, at Tellico, was especially sensitive because of the huge controversy that surrounded taking the land to build a dam, on a small tributary, that could barely be justified.

Bitter emotions remain over lost farms, homes and Native American burial sites. The proposal to sell that appropriated land for a sleek resort development reeked of callous disregard. But TVA could hardly cancel it and still justify going ahead with private development of Little Cedar Mountain.

In its current fragile fix with a predominantly hostile Congress, TVA also does not need more enemies among its constituents. It helps, of course, that large contingents of the public have been committed to holding TVA accountable for its land use plans. But TVA's management also must now recognize that the best way to mend public resentment and rebuild support is to respect the responsibilities it has accumulated.

The agency, to be sure, will likely offer other development proposals over time. It has reserved 38 percent of its lakefront property for private development, and most of that remains undeveloped.

But TVA's managers should learn from the storm over the Nickajack and Tellico proposals that large segments of the public remain committed to public ownership of TVA's public realm. TVA must not take that lightly; future development decisions deserve fair and early public hearings, and respect for public sentiment.

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URL: http://207.69.235.40/opinion/edit/1999/Mar/Mar171999edit1.html

Chattanooga Times/Free Press