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Hiwassee Reservoir

Hiwassee Reservoir Land Management Plan

Reservoir Land Management Plans (RLMPs) effectively guide land use approvals, private water use facility permitting, and resource management decisions on TVA-managed public land.

Hiwassee Reservoir is one of nine tributary reservoirs included in the Mountain RLMP project, which was approved by the TVA Board of Directors in November 2009.

Hiwassee Reservoir is an impoundment of the Hiwassee River formed by Hiwassee Dam, which is located on the Hiwassee River 20 miles downstream from Murphy, North Carolina. Hiwassee Reservoir is situated in Cherokee county in North Carolina.

The Murphy River Walk Trail is a beautiful greenway that winds around the town center of historic Murphy, North Carolina, along the Hiwassee and Valley rivers. You can walk the trail on foot or enjoy an easy paddle along the canoe trails. If you begin at Konehete Park and follow the Valley River to where it meets the Hiwassee River, you will pass through hardwood forests, wetlands, open meadows and around a rock cliff.

Scope

The scope of the Hiwassee RLMP is 1,007.4 acres of the 6,273.0 total acres of TVA public land in the Mountain RLMP. Hiwassee Reservoir property is divided into 74 parcels, and each parcel is assigned a single land use allocation zone. Descriptions of the allowable land uses within each land planning zone are available here.

Mountain Reservoirs Land Management Plan

Maps

Use the GIS Viewer Map to find individual parcels and land use allocations for TVA reservoir property.  Click on individual parcels to find out more information about a piece of TVA property.  Please note that parcel descriptions are included in the interactive map viewer for convenience, but may have been altered from the original description due to character length restrictions.  Please reference the appropriate Reservoir Land Management Plan for the complete parcel descriptions.  Also, please note that parcel descriptions are representative of the time in which the plans were written; some information may be out of date such as available facilities or names of commercial operations.

Download Map (PDF)

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How to Use the Viewer Map (PDF)

Allocation Changes

After approval of an RLMP by TVA, all future uses of TVA public lands on that reservoir must then be consistent with the allocations within the RLMP. In accordance with TVA policies and guidelines, allocation changes are only allowable under limited circumstances. The attachment at the link below describes the land use allocation changes that have occurred on Hiwassee Reservoir since the 2009 RLMP was completed.

Allocation Changes

Land Allocation Acreage

TVA land around Hiwassee Reservoir has been allocated for certain land uses as summarized in the table below.

Allocation Designation*

 Acreage

Zone 2

Project Operations

   366.4

Zone 3

Sensitive Resource Management

   114.7

Zone 4

Natural Resource Conservation

   441.2

Zone 5

Industrial

      0.0

Zone 6

Developed Recreation

     42.2

Zone 7

Shoreline Access

     42.9

Total

1,007.4

*Zone 1 is Non-TVA Shoreland with TVA land rights and does not change as a result of the lands planning process.

Environmental Review

TVA’s land planning methodology incorporates the environmental review process established under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA requires federal agencies to consider the effects of their proposed projects on the human and natural environment before final decisions are made.

Mountain Reservoirs Environmental Review

It is important to note that RLMPs are programmatic plans that designate potential allowable land uses as defined in the land use zone definitions and do not involve specific land actions. TVA would complete an appropriate site-specific environmental review prior to proposed development or activity on TVA public land.