David A Johnson - The TVA Regional Planning and Development Program: The Transformation of an Institution and Its Mission

First published 2005 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2017 by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright Aelred J. Gray and David A. Johnson 2005

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Gray, Aelred J.

The TVA regional planning and development program : the transformation of an institution and its mission. - (Urban planning and environment)

1.Tennessee Valley Authority - History 2.Regional planning

- Tennessee River Valley - History

I.Title II Johnson, David A., 1935-

307.19768

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gray, Aelred J., (Aelred Joseph) 19092000

The TVA regional planning and development program : the transformation of an institution and its mission / Aelred J. Gray and David Johnson,

p. cm. -- (Urban planning and environment)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0754637867

1. Tennessee Valley Autliority--Histoiy 2. Regional planningTennessee River Valley.

3. Organizational change. 4. Corporate culture. I. Johnson, David A., 1935- II. Title. III. Series.

HD9685.U5G74 2004

307.109768dc22

2004046268

ISBN 13: 9780754637868 (hbk)

Frontispiece: Aelred J. Gray

The Tennessee Valley Authority was created by Act of Congress in 1933. TVA was intended to be a centerpiece of President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal response to the economic distress of the Great Depression. The Authority was conceived as a way to pull one of the poorest parts of the country out of poverty and to serve as a model for the planning and development of other regions of the country. It was designed to have the material support and legal authority of the federal government while operating with the flexibility of a private corporation. TVA was given three discrete missions, each focussed on the Tennessee River which flowed through seven states of the Old Confederacy. These were flood control, improved navigation, and most important, hydroelectric power generation. These missions were conceived as part of a larger, and more vaguely defined, objective of integrated regional development - social, economic and physical. The history of TVA is in essence the interaction and conflict between its three specific missions and its larger mission - lifting its region (defined in various ways) out of economic backwardness into a prosperity that eluded all of the country in the Depression. The challenge was to do so through intentional integrated regional and community planning. It was an enormous challenge.

Because of the vagueness of its charge to carry out regional development TVA never was able to provide a comprehensive regional plan for its river basin. Nevertheless, TVA had a profound impact on the Tennessee River Valley and on the American South as a whole. Perhaps as important, TVA helped win the World War which ended the Depression. The electricity TVA generated by harnessing the river through an extraordinary system of dams provided the energy for the aluminum production needed to manufacture military aircraft. The secret Oak Ridge atomic facility could only have been constructed where great power surpluses were available. TVAs hydro power refined the uranium that ultimately brought the War in the Pacific to a climax with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There have been numerous histories of TVA, some synoptic, others focused on specific topics. Some were written by such important figures as Arthur Morgan and David Lilienthal, chairmen who guided the TVA in its early days. Other books and articles have focussed on political, economic and environmental impacts. This book supplements those works. Its claim to originality is primarily that it is the memoir of an extraordinary, dynamic staff member who served TVA in important positions for more than 30 years, nearly from its creation to late into the 20th century. Few people insideTVA enjoyed the vantage point and the longevity of Aelred J. Gray. A.J. or 'Flash, as he was known from his Notre Dame football days, was in a unique position to observe and participate in the workings of TVA from its inception until his retirement in 1973. His professional career thus provides a unique opportunity to understand the workings of TVA over 40 years, providing a lens through which to view what TVA was supposed to be and what it became as an organization - its achievements, and its shortcomings. At the same time we need to recognize that Gray was looking at the day-to-day operations of TVA from a particular vantage point in the agency - that of an urban and regional planner. Planning and development was what TVA was supposed to be about. But as David Lilienthal liked to point out, TVA had no regional master plan. What there was, was a general understanding of directions, a plan always in development, a visioning process, loosely defined, but one which was supposedly generally understood and one which was based on grassroots citizen and local and state government participation. As subsequent analysts demonstrated, TVA was in reality a federal agency imposing its will on the region, at least in its three primary missions - flood control, navigation, and electric generation. It could not have been otherwise. But it was in the area of community and local development that TVA had some discretion to respond to local needs, problems and opportunities, within a region-wide framework. It is this part of TVAs story that this work focuses on, through the work and views of the planner who directed this part of TVAs program for nearly three decades.