Park Place

A few months ago, J. Jeremy Parks responded to an e-mail from an engaged woman about the planned Park Place development. The four-star hotel slated for the 13-acre site at the edge of downtown Annapolis was the only place she deemed large enough and grand enough to hold her reception. When would it be open? The developer gave her the bad news: At least two winters from now. "She was willing to wait," Parks said. Longtime developer Jerome J. Parks and his son Jeremy have always been willing to wait, too. Six years after they bought the first of several parcels near Westgate Circle, work began this summer on a $300 million commercial, residential and retail project that is unusual in scale for a mostly developed Colonial-era city.

Sandwiched between miles of waterfront, two metropolitan areas and the fast-growing Baltimore-Washington International Airport corridor, Anne Arundel County is not lacking as an attraction for homebuyers. In recent years, the demand for housing has led to a diminished inventory and soaring home values, while the lack of land has challenged developers to generate creative mixed-use projects that combine residential units with retail and office space. "It goes back to the supply-and-demand equation," said William Badger Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp.

Evan Belaga keeps a watchful eye on Weems Creek from his living room window. Last week, he said, he observed "a huge plume of silt and sediment" in plain view of his and other homes built on the banks of the creek. He worries that several ongoing construction projects in Annapolis, coupled with recent heavy rains, are hurting the creeks that empty into the Chesapeake Bay. "These little streams can't carry all this storm water," said Belaga, president of the Weems Creek Conservancy, a group concerned about the waterway's health.

Park Place Location: West Street and Taylor Avenue in Annapolis. Developer: Jerome J. Parks of Annapolis Description: A mix of 120 condominiums, a Westin hotel, two office buildings and a small retail area. Land has also been set aside for a 1,200-seat performing arts center. Status: Construction is under way, and Parks expects the first buildings to be complete by late 2006. On a recent morning, people lined up before dawn to secure preliminary appointments with the sellers of the Park Place condominiums, expected to retail at about $450,000 per unit.

On February 21, 2005, CLARA F. STREETT (nee Fisher) beloved wife of the late Julius Streett, beloved mother of Brian Streett of Jerusalem, Israel, and Craig Streett of Elkridge, MD, devoted mother-in-law of Varda Streett and Gayle Streett, loving grandmother of Sha'anan and Bali, Nadav and Irit, Eyal and Antoni'a and Tova Streett, loving great-grandmother of Shali Streett. Services and interment at Beth Jacob Congregation Cemetery, Finksburg, MD, on Wednesday, February 23, at 1 P.M. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be directed to House of Ruth, 2201 Argonne Drive, (21218)

A long-discussed plan to bring condominiums, a hotel and an arts theater to downtown Annapolis is moving forward now that the city council has voted to help finance a parking garage for the $200 million complex. The Park Place project - expected to be the largest in the foreseeable future for a city that is almost built to capacity - gained city approval three years ago but has been on hold as developer Jerome J. Parks has struggled to put together financing. Parks found a major investor last month, and last week's council vote clears the way for major construction.

POINT LOOKOUT -- On this jagged peninsula where thousands of Confederate soldiers met their deaths, the air is thick with the smell of charcoal and marinated beef. Soccer balls whiz past colorful hammocks. Several adults dressed head-to-toe in white stand on a rocky beach waiting to be born again -- baptized in the warm waters of the Potomac River. And everyone is speaking Spanish. Point Lookout State Park, once a Civil War prison camp, has evolved into a retreat for Latin American immigrants, many of them from El Salvador.

Ida S. Miller, who tutored mentally disabled children, died in her sleep July 20 at Roland Park Place. She was 95. Ida Barrett Shelley was born and raised in Forty Fort, Pa. She graduated in 1926 from Southern Seminary in Buena Vista, Va., and earned her bachelor's degree from Beaver College in 1930. In 1933, she married Dr. J. Malcolm Miller, a West Pittston, Pa., dentist who died in 1976. "She successfully taught basic reading and math to children who suffered from Down syndrome and were thought to be uneducable.

Ellicott City developer Michael L. Pfau withdrew last week his fourth set of house designs under review by Howard County's Historic District Commission, which must approve the plans before he can begin construction on a 15-home development in the town's historic district. At the developer's request, the commission scheduled an "advisory" meeting Jan. 28 to give Pfau -- president of Trinity Homes Inc. -- more direction on how he can modify the designs to meet the panel's guidelines. "I think it's been an incremental process," said Stephen Lafferty, deputy director of the county Department of Planning and Zoning.

The Howard County Historic District Commission left developer Michael L. Pfau with few options after its members delivered strongly worded critiques of the fourth set of designs he submitted for his 15-home development in Ellicott City's historic district. Although panel members said the designs showed improvement over the plans they reviewed in October, they told Pfau at a hearing last week that they were still incompatible with the century-old homes that line upper Church Road. "I tend to think these are tract homes; I see the deck and the sliding door," said commission member Robert Williams after three hours of testimony.