OAK RIDGE -- The Department of Energy plans to move quickly to free up property needed for a proposed residential development near the federal reservation, but will shelve -- at least temporarily -- the transfer of land for a new industrial park, DOE Manager Leah Dever said Tuesday night.

Dever hosted a public meeting to discuss land use on DOE's 34,000-acre Oak Ridge reservation, and more than 200 people packed a conference room at the Oak Ridge Mall.

The crowd was sharply divided in its interests. Many favored additional development of federal property to boost the regional economy, while others opposed any activities that would threaten the biologically diverse ecosystem or skew environmental research projects.

Dever said she planned to sign, possibly this week, an environmental assessment that will speed the transfer of a 182-acre parcel of Clinch River floodplain, thus giving river access for a proposed development of 1,200 acres now owned by the Boeing Co. The planned residential community would include about 1,500 homes, and several speakers said the expansion of infrastructure west of Oak Ridge would stimulate the tax base and have a positive impact on the city's retail outlook.

"We believe that's the right thing to do," Dever said of the transfer of DOE property to assist the project.

She also said she plans to move ahead with an environmental review to permit transfer of some federal property at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The land transfer is needed to allow private investment for new facilities on ORNL's campus, as part of a major lab refurbishment.

However, DOE's Oak Ridge manager said she plans to "take a pause" regarding the environmental assessment of several hundred acres of federal land known as ED-3. Business developers want to convert the land near the K-25 plant into an affordable, "mid-level" industrial park.

Dever said more time needs to be spent studying overall land use before proceeding.

Dr. Virginia Dale, an environmental scientist at ORNL who heads a land-use committee for the Ecological Society of America, said it is frustrating to live in Oak Ridge and watch authorities pursue developments in an "ecologically inappropriate" manner.

"We're not looking at the full area," Dale said, noting that forested areas are surrounded by a "sea of development."