Chapel

Baltimore County Council members have finally approved legislation to require the county to post preliminary plans for "Planned Unit Developments" online ("Balto. Co. Council OKs PUD reform" Feb. 22). It's about time. Such projects allow developers to get around certain zoning restrictions by offering defined benefits to the community. In the matter of Mays Chapel Park, the council has decided to usurp the dedicated Recreation and Parks property for the construction of an elementary school without the opportunity for public comment.

For the second time in about five years, Mays Chapel residents are fighting the Baltimore County school system's plans to build a school in their neighborhood on land that was purchased years ago for that purpose. Residents who spoke at a school board meeting on Tuesday night said a retirement community has grown up around the school system's land since it was purchased years ago and it is now used as recreation and parkland by many of the residents in surrounding retirement communities.

Holly Atwood, 18, chose a sequined, strapless wedding gown and train with a shoulder-length veil for her wedding to Steven Joseph, 21. He wore a tuxedo with a red vest and tie, a nod to Valentine's Day. She was so nervous she left her heels in the car and walked into the Baltimore County Courthouse in satin slippers. Court Clerk Julie Ensor officiated at the brief civil ceremony and offered the Harford County couple best wishes. Theirs was among the last of nearly 30 weddings there on Valentine's Day, the most love-infused day of the year and the busiest wedding date at many area courthouses.

The 19th-century stone mansion for sale on Elkton's Main Street offers an impressive list of features: numerous bedrooms and baths, as well as six fireplaces. But there's much more: a fully appointed wedding chapel filled with decades of memories — and even some reservations for next Valentine's Day. Owners Frank and Barbara Smith hope a buyer will retain the chapel, the last remnant of the bustling marriage business that once defined this town on Maryland's northern border. But they also realize that the site, across the street from the Cecil County courthouse, would be a prime location for lawyers' offices.

At Stoneleigh Elementary School south of Towson, classrooms are too crowded to hold all the students, so many classes are held in portable trailers parked outside. It's a common problem in Baltimore County's York Road corridor, where trailers are being used at eight of the 12 elementary schools from Stoneleigh to the Pennsylvania line. Now, county school officials are poised to offer some creative solutions — including moving Stoneleigh students more than a mile away to a school on the other side of Towson, and building a new school in Mays Chapel.

Editor: Fellowship Chapel in Jarrettsville recently held a community carnival to kick off its seventh Awana Club season. Registration was conducted and 59 children were registered that evening. A fun time was had by all, and the leaders wish to recognize the following local businesses for their generous door prize donations: Around Again Consignments, Kefauver's, Greenspring Gift Shop, Flowers by Bauer's, HeathQuote Insurance Services, Party Party, Stork Headquarters, Subway of Jarrettsville, Next to New Consignment, The Curling Iron, Jarrettsville Pharmacy and Jeanie's Sweet Treats.

No one who walks into Jeri and Jesse Hannon's townhouse in Mays Chapel North is likely to forget the dining room chandelier. Hanging from a 10-foot-high carved ceiling medallion, this magnificent fixture, fashioned of cut crystal and looking much like a carved ice sculpture, commands the space around it. The elegance of the chandelier almost solely defines Jeri Hannon's decorating scheme in the home she and her husband have occupied for the past...

Regal Cinemas will open a theater at Waugh Chapel Towne Centre, a planned mixed-use development in Gambrills in West Anne Arundel County, project developer Greenberg Gibbons said Monday. The theater will offer digital projection and will be the first IMAX cinema in the area. The 52,000-square-foot theater will join anchors Wegmans, Target, Dick's Sporting Goods and Petco in a 1.2 million-square-foot center with 650,000 square feet of shops, 125,000 square feet of offices and 380 apartments.

Again, they promised to be there for the good times and the bad, and in sickness and in health — some with young children sitting beside them, or grown grandchildren. But for many of the nearly 70 couples who renewed their vows Sunday, the words proved even more powerful than the first time. The crowd of about 200 packed into pews at the Loyola University Maryland Alumni Memorial Chapel in Baltimore the day before Valentine's Day for the first mass renewal of wedding vows organized by the alumni association.