Developer cashing in on waterfront swapped by TVA before ban

<p>Just a mention that a private developer is selling waterfront lots that the government once forcibly bought for public use stirs hurtful memories for John Webb Jr.</p><p>"It's not right," Webb said. "There was never a for sale sign on my father's farm."</p><p>In 1965, Webb's family was forced to sell out for $400 an acre as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority's plan to prevent floods and manage land near the Tennessee River to benefit the public.</p><p>Last week, Rarity Communities, Inc., of Vonore, in a partnership with Chattanooga developer John "Thunder" Thornton, sold more than 80 lots on a 578-acre tract that Thornton acquired earlier this year in a deal with TVA.</p><p>The lots, not far from the riverside acreage previously owned by the Webbs, are selling for up to $600,000 each.</p><p>Thornton obtained the land from TVA by swapping the utility about 1,100 acres, including an undeveloped Tennessee River island, as part of a transaction TVA officials valued at $7.2 million.</p><p>The developers' take from the Dec. 9 sale of 80 lots: about $30 million.</p><p>That leaves them hundreds more lots remaining to sell, in addition to planned condominiums.</p><p>"Part of the freedom we have is property rights," said Webb, who now lives in Gainesville, Ga. "When you take away those property rights that is no different than living in a communist country."</p><p>The gated development near Interstate 24 about 30 miles west of Chattanooga includes an 18-hole golf course, a marina with dry storage, tennis club, a workout and wellness center and 13 miles of hiking trails.</p><p>Thornton contends the land he swapped to TVA is more archeologically and environmentally valuable.</p><p>Fred McArthur, executive vice president of Rarity Communities, said the land's history of going private to public by eminent domain and then back to private ownership is not unique.</p><p>"This is our fourth community that had been built that were taken by powers of eminent domain," he said. "We feel differently. Our payback to these communities is an economic impact payback."</p><p>He said the development marketing is aimed primarily at baby boomers, the "78 million folks who are turning 60 this year."</p><p>McArthur said the upscale development about 30 miles west of Chattanooga will attract homeowners who will give more in taxes than they take in services.</p><p>"These folks, they just buy services. They don't take jobs. They pay for the schools," McArthur said.</p><p>TVA spokesman John Moulton said "economic development was one of the reasons" the utility's board decided to swap the land to Thornton, a politically connected University of Tennessee trustee.</p><p>Marion County Mayor Howell Moss said the development will "double the tax base of the county...You're probably looking at a million dollar average per house site, probably on the low end."</p><p>"You either raise people's taxes or you grow," Moss said.</p><p>After the deal with Thornton, an expanded TVA board in November banned any future sale of protected shoreline along the 11,000 miles of the river system for residential and retail development.</p><p>Marion County Commissioner Louin Campbell, who initially opposed transferring ownership of TVA land to private developers, said "TVA should never have been in the land business. They are in the power business."</p><p>Campbell said the posh residential development will help the county financially.</p><p>"As long as it doesn't cost the taxpayers anything, I'm for it," Campbell said. "When homesites start above $200,000 you can imagine, it is going to be something unique...It's just like a big industry moving in actually without the pollution."</p><p>Campbell said his family was forced from the land as tenant farmers.</p><p>Michael Della Polla of Kennesaw, Ga., an airline pilot and business owner who bought a lot in the Dec. 11 sale, said he paid $550,000 for 100 feet of waterfront.</p><p>"They are going to be the most exclusive place up there," Della Polla said in a telephone interview. "They are going to be the Lookout Mountain on the lake."</p><p>Della Polla said he had only previously visited Tennessee on a trip to Gatlinburg.</p><p>He said he was not aware of the eminent domain history of the land but knows the development will be a tax bonanza for the community.</p><p>"You are bringing big money in there," said Della Polla, 47.</p><p>That's little consolation for Webb.</p><p>"The fact they (TVA) stopped selling I think is good," Webb said. "That doesn't do anything to change what happened before."</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/12/110285