Introducing the City's New Zoning Board of Appeals

Peachtree Corners new Zoning Board of Appeals will be sworn in Tuesday night. A training session and organization meeting will take place at the Fowler YMCA beginning at 7:00 p.m.

To help you get to know the ZBA members, following are the names of each along with brief background information.

But first a basic description of their duties:

Citizen volunteers make up the five-member board, the duties and responsibilities include reviewing and issuing rulings related to variance requests and appeals of administrative decisions. The ZBA's decisions are not subject to a review by City Council. The decisions can only be appealed to Gwinnett County Superior Court.

Marcia Brandes:, Dist. 1, Current occupation: Retired Business Owner
Peachtree Corners resident for 39 years
Education: English Degree from Vanderbilt University
Background: Owned an art manufacturing company for 33 years that employed 26 people, sold product nationally, four years ago sold business. Also a member of Peachtree Toastmasters for the past 20 years. Currently works as a reader for the Georgia Radio Reading Program, which involves recording oral presentations for broadcast to visually impaired listeners.

Wayne Knox: Dist. 2, Current occupation: Retired Project Manager
Peachtree Corners resident for 18 years
Education: MBA fom the University of Georgia
Background: Work history includes a variety of positions for a major corporation that ranged from budgeting and associated resource allocation to project management, real estate provisioning, automotive fleet management and services delivery among others. Since 2002, he has served as the UPCCA V.P. for land use which involved re-zoning, variance applications, etc. Since 2006, he has served as the Commission Dist. 2 appointee to the Gwinnett County Zoning Board of Appeals.

Amreeta Regmi: Dist. 2, Current occupation: International Development Specialist
Peachtree Corners resident for 5 years
Education: MBA from Brenau University and Ph.D in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
Background: Has worked in the international trade and development sector supporting municipal and national governments, private sector groups and non-governmental organizations. Also worked with U.N. agencies, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development and with non-governmental agencies. Currently works as an independent consultant providing institutional and international development assistance. She is fluent in Nepali and Spanish.

Eric Christ: Dist. 2, Current occupation: General Management, Marketing
Peachtree Corners resident for 14 years
Education: Masters in Business Administration from Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Also holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a double-major in marketing and international management from Georgetown University.
Background: General management, marketing and product management positions with leading information technology companies. He is currently the CEO of PracticeAdmin, a Peachtree Corners business located in Technology Park. He's a past the president of Patient Placement Systems, a vendor of Web-based applications that connected hospitals, nursing facilities, home health agencies, etc.

James Blum: Dist. 3, Current occupation: Attorney
Peachtree Corners resident for 8 years
Education: Graduate of Notre Dame, attended and graduated from law school at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.
Background: Since graduating from law school, he has been engaged in the active practice of law, with his majority of experience in resolution of disputes concerning real estate and related matters. His law firm, Beloin, Brown, & Blum, LLC, handles disputes concerning title, lien priority, boundary line issues and other various matters concerning real property law.

Alternates named:

Jason Carnell, Dist. 2, Attorney
Brian Stickney, Dist. 2, Attorney, Financial Planner
Matthew Gries, Dist. 3, Attorney
Ken Goryn, Dist. 3, V. P. of Sales

Selection process: Candidates submitted an application, references and responded to a questionnaire. The candidates were selected by a three-member panel that included Lynette Howard, (Gwinnett County Dist. 2 Commissioner, and Peachtree Corners resident) John Kachmar, (city consultant) and Michelle Alexander (Pond & Co.).