Sound Shore

Port Chester’s November amnesty on overdue parking tickets failed to bring in the shot of cash that  proponents hoped for. Revenue increased that month, but the amnesty didn’t bring anything like the $200,000 net gain that officials banked on for the 2011-12 budget.

That budget line was one of the items hotly debated in May, when the village board made a slew of last-minute changes to reduce the property-tax levy by 5 percent. How far did the estimate fall short? Here are the receipts from the last several months from contractor Complus, according to the village treasurer:

June: 4,111 tickets paid, $144,970 collected.

July: 3,240 tickets paid, $104,995 collected.

August: 3,951 tickets paid, $125,535 collected.

September: 3,358 tickets paid, $87,343 collected.

October: 3,403 tickets paid, $93,155 collected.

November: 5,882 tickets paid, $152,285 collected.

Port Chester is waiving late penalties on old parking tickets this month. If you have tickets more than 90 days old, now’s the time to pay the original amount. The amnesty ends Wednesday, Nov. 30.

Payment may be in person at the Parking Violations Bureau, 350 N. Main St., via mail postmarked by Wednesday, or online at www.portchesterny.com.

Rye streets are off-limits to overnight parking under the seasonal “snow ordinance.”

The parking ban is in effect between 3 a.m. and 6 p.m. from November through March. Some exceptions apply on Theall Road and on Davis Avenue. For more info, check this this police advisory. Neighboring Rye Brook sent out a similar alert.

Update: It has come to our attention that various movie buff sites say that “Marcher” is actually the code name for “The Bourne Legacy,” which imdb.com says is Gilroy’s current project.

Earlier:

Corporate Park Drive in Harrison will see some lights and action Tuesday — Universal Pictures will be shooting scenes for the action movie “Marcher,” directed by Tony Gilroy.

According to a letter from Universal to tenants, the filming will be at 110 Corporate Park Drive and in the lot at Building 106, with about 100 background actors and 125 crew members.

Access to the lots will be limited, and people are asked to park at Buildings 103 and 105. The Bee-Line will skip the stop at Building 110 but make the other stops on Corporate Park Drive. A shuttle will circulate from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Gilroy also directed “Duplicity” and “Michael Clayton.” His writing credits include the “Bourne” series, starring Matt Damon as the title character.

The crew had also sought permission to film at Ward Acres park in New Rochelle, but that plan was canceled.

Port Chester trustees heard a pitch tonight for a new five-story building – four upper floors of apartments and ground-floor retail space – in the middle of town at Westchester Avenue and North Main Street.

G&S Investors already has approval for a three-level retail building there as part of the sweeping mall development approved in 1999. Now the developer is asking for changes in the village zoning and urban renewal plans. G&S Partner Robert Weinberg and attorney Mark Weingarten said the 79-unit residential development would bring an “upscale” group of renters who would spend money downtown.

They took pains to describe the project as a luxury building that would appeal to professional couples, Manhattan commuters, empty nesters and “divorced spouses,” rather than families that would add new children to the school district. Back when the mall was approved, Weingarten said, residential development overall was frowned upon due to fears over low-income, subsidized apartments. He pointed to the success of “smart-growth” projects in White Plains that have brought more people downtown to support local shops and restaurants.

The project’s construction would be assisted by the village Industrial Development Agency.

Mayor Dennis Pilla and three trustees heard the initial pitch at tonight’s board meeting. Trustee Bart Didden, a downtown property owner who sued G&S over another development, recused himself from the discussion. There was no mention of another issue involving the mall development; how to pay for the collapse of the privately built bulkhead along the Byram River near the edge of the Costco parking lot.

Before any decisions are made, the proposal will go to the Planning Board for a review and recommendation.

Port Chester is inviting merchants, shoppers, property owners and residents to speak up about downtown parking at a forum Tuesday.

This is an early morning “summit” — starting at 8 a.m. — in the senior center behind village hall, at 222 Grace Church St.

Meantime, you’re welcome to post comments here on the parking situation in Port Chester and how to improve it. Thoughts?

Work is scheduled to begin next week to create new turning lanes and signal lights on Westchester Avenue in central Port Chester. The project, expected to continue until mid-November, will provide left-turn lanes off Westchester Avenue at Pearl and Broad streets  and signal lights at both intersections, near the Metro-North train station. Some parking spots will be eliminated on Westchester Avenue and added on Pearl Street.

There’s a detailed map available here.

The traffic project is part of the Waterfront mall development and is funded by the developer, G&S.

The snow seems to weigh heavily on this statue in Port Chester, part of the Spanish-American War Memorial in Summerfield Park.

The bronze statue was funded by the Works Progress Administration in 1937. The work was produced by several local folks, including Luigi Del Bianco, a sculptor who helped shape Mount Rushmore.

For more on the memorial and other historic sites, see the Preservation page of the Westchester County Historical Society.

Across the street from the statue is another snowy site, the Port Chester train station.

Village officials are in an apparent standoff with MTA over who is responsible to shovel the sidewalks surrounding the station. MTA’s position is that it is only responsible for the parking lots, the train platforms and the stairs leading up to them.

Village officials went ahead and shoveled after the last storm and a flurry of complaints from commuters. Late this morning, King Street and Broad Street were quite snowy, with only a narrow trail of tamped-down snow.

The Port Chester parking meters do not expect you to pay them on holidays. But what do they consider a holiday? Not Martin Luther King Day, apparently.

Claude Zoref was among the people who were ticketed on Monday when he assumed it was a holiday with respect to parking, and came back to find a $25 ticket. Village Hall – which was closed Monday, for the holiday of course – received a number of complaints about the policy. But according to the village code (V&T Article 1, 319-2) these are the only holidays for parking purposes in Port Chester:

New Year’s Day

Memorial Day

Independence Day

Labor Day

Thanksgiving Day

Christmas Day

Zoref is planning to fight his ticket in court. A change in policy would require action by the village board. But Zoref said he just wants the policy to be clear: “It’s a total deceptive practice.”

(UPDATE: At tonight’s village board meeting, officials agreed to ask the village prosecutor not to pursue any of the parking tickets issued Monday. Chief Joseph Krzeminski called for having the tickets dismissed; he said he was away Monday and would not have enforced the meter fees if he had been present. The chief explained that in prior years, the personnel handling such enforcement would have had the day off.)