The Tennessee House passed a resolution Wednesday urging "the Tennessee Valley Authority and its agents and agencies to refrain from the sale, trade, or otherwise transfer of lands it currently owns and has designated for public use to private developers or to any who might use such land for private development." The vote for the resolution was unanimous. The full text of the resolution is here (PDF format).

The next day, it was reported that the new TVA board will consider a moratorium on land deals involving transfer of public land for private development. According to the article, this follows recent controversy regarding land swap deals with Johnny "Thunder" Thornton and Mike Ross of Rarity (who is also involved in the Alcoa "R&D" Park condo/retail project) to build multi-million dollar gated golf communities on TVA lake shores.

The Tennessee House of Representatives is right on this one. This land was taken from farmers and regular people under eminent domain, some of it at gunpoint. At the very least, the original owners or their heirs should have the right of first refusal to buy back the land at the original price paid to them by TVA so they can benefit from the sale to developers.

Beyond that, I think most people would agree that some development is warranted, especially development that is open to the public such as parks and recreation areas, wildlife habitat and preserves, and public resorts/marinas such as the new Sequoyah Lodge and Lake Resort on Tellico Lake in Monroe Co. that will benefit not only the public but the surrounding community and its economy.