City seeks new planner: Full-timer would have salary up to $40,000
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The planner is expected to work in conjunction with the Codes Department, where Codes Officer Jim Brock has been working as the city’s unofficial planner for several years. The city’s current planner, Joe Barrett, works for the city on a part-time basis, with codes following up on advice between monthly planning meetings.
The city pays $10,000 for Barrett’s services. He works out of Cookeville as the Upper Cumberland’s Local Planning Assistance Office under the Department of Economic and Community Development.
A planner, such as the one currently assisting the city at monthly Planning Commission meetings and more recently helping to plot the city’s 20-year growth plan, offers advice on zoning issues and could possibly even help with the downtown revitalization project.
“We have lots of planning issues,” City Administrator Herb Llewellyn said of the need for a local planner, noting he believes a city the size of McMinnville is large enough to keep a full-time planner busy. “We have been experiencing lots of development and we just felt like we needed a planner here all the time, someone who understands our community and our values and can translate that into action.”
Llewellyn said Barrett, who provides assistance to several different cities in the region, appears to have a conflict of interest with regard to the 20-year growth plan. He represents both the city and the county, and at one time, also represented Morrison.
“Whether it’s ever been a problem or not, it certainly can have the appearance of having a conflict,” Llewellyn said.
Llewellyn and Brock said a planner is something the former administration had investigated and has been needed for some time. The planner is expected to be located in the local codes office and that office’s official name may be changed to reflect the words “community development.”
The planning position is expected to pay between $30,000 to $40,000 per year. Subdivisions, re-zoning, block grant applications and the downtown revitalization project are some of the areas a planner could be useful, Llewellyn added.