JAMES WOOD

Staff Writer

Thomas E. Batchelor shared his personal journey to becoming the City Planner of Shelbyville in an exclusive interview about his history in the field of architecture, building codes and more leading up to his position today.

Growing up in Okinawa Island for six years while his father served at Kadena Air Force Base, his family later moved to Virginia where he graduated from Virginia Tech.

Batchelor started his career in Maryland working as a Project Coordinator. From there, he later began engaging with local governments through working with architectural firms across the east coast of the United States.

Through his work in architecture and a vacancy for Planning Director in his firm in Easton, Maryland, he was introduced into the planning profession.

“Architecture is an adjacent profession from planning,” said Batchelor. “It’s not the same thing but it takes the same mind.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Batchelor and his wife moved to Tennessee from Maryland to be closer to family within the region.

“We were thinking about coming to Tennessee anyway,” said Batchelor.

After the move, Batchelor began getting more integrated within the community in Wartrace and Bedford County as a whole. Starting in 2022, he officially landed his position as the Shelbyville City Planner.

Since his hiring, Batchelor has presided over assisting the city government in ensuring that all projects that come to the Planning Commission and City Council are law-conforming and easy to understand, allowing officials to reach informed decisions.

He shared his day-to-day agenda as a City Planner, elaborating on the responsibilities of his position.

“Whether it’s the City Council, Planning Commission or so forth, my job is to provide the technical support for it,” said Batchelor. “I’m constantly managing projects that are coming in and providing feedback that conforms to our laws.”

Batchelor highlighted the difference between the city management cultures of Maryland and Tennessee, sharing his perspective on moving states.

“The difference between Tennessee and Maryland is that the east operates under a top-down structure from the State to the City,” he continued. “They exert their laws more prominently, having to meet certain requirements of the state code.”

He mentioned some perceived change he has seen further west in Tennessee in the city planning culture.

“You’re seeing some of that structure happening in Tennessee at the state level,” he said. “I think it’s partly because of the environmental and roads thing, and growth is kind of pushing it.”

While the two states are different on the regulation level, Batchelor emphasized the similarities between the two as well.

“While they don’t tolerate violations and are a lot more strict on the enforcement part of it, they’re very similar to here in being easygoing outside of regulation.”

On a personal level, Batchelor shared his enjoyment of Tennessee’s culture.

“The last place I lived just outside of Baltimore was like any urban environment, stick to yourself,” said Batchelor. “We met more people in the first couple weeks of moving here than anywhere else and enjoyed those relationships.”

Lastly, he spoke on what continues to draw him to city planning and his favorite parts of the job.

“Other people looking from the outside in view it as very stressful because there’s a lot of coordinating and moving parts,” continued Batchelor. “Some of it is the people and working with lots of different groups and trying to build a plan where everybody can agree upon something, I really enjoy that part of it.”