County News

By Roger Baker
County Manager

01/18/2007 - One of the most interesting projects to come before the Gilpin County Commissioners in the last several years will have a public hearing at Tuesday’s meeting, in the old Courthouse in Central City at 10 o’clock on January 23^rd.

  Ameristar Casino—that’s the former Hyatt, former Mountain High Casino in Black Hawk—has applied to build a 26,000-square-foot warehouse on Highway 119, in the vacant lot between the Renaissance Solutions building and the old house (now the offices for McCollum Excavating) that at one time housed the Gilpin Library. (The site is about 300 yards south of the new Library, if that helps you picture the spot).

  For all the changes gaming has brought to Black Hawk, and to a lesser extent Central City (aside from the Parkway, of course), the direct impacts out in the County have been relatively minor. The casinos are using quite a bit of warehouse space at various spots throughout the County, but this would be the first casino-owned building actually erected outside the gaming districts of the two towns.

  And it’s designed to be a big building, too. In size and general orientation, it would resemble our new Road & Bridge building a great deal, but it would be a lot closer to, and more visible from, Highway 119. And of course there are a number of homes in the Colorado Sierra Subdivision just in back of the building site.

  Ameristar is coming before the Commissioners to request a Special Use Review for a PUD—that’s a Planned Unit Development—that would allow them to construct a larger building than they would otherwise be allowed. But this is a C-4 (Heavy Commercial) zoned area, and one way or another, these undeveloped lots aren’t going to remain vacant forever; the property owner has the right to develop them. Going through the PUD process gives the County some input into both the appearance and the operation of the building that we would not otherwise have.

  Among the conditions recommended by the Planning Commission, for example, was that deliveries would be allowed only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.—a significant factor, considering the casino is open until 2 a.m. They suggested requiring a lot of additional landscaping, partly to beautify the site and partly to screen operations from the adjacent neighborhoods. We’re also going to ask that one driveway be used for both the warehouse and Renaissance Solutions, which will help by providing a sort of frontage road between the warehouse and Highway 119.

  Anyone is welcome to testify at the public hearing (though parking is limited to the Teller House lot because of our rock wall repair project here at the old Courthouse), and those who can’t make it but want to give input can mail comments to County Planner Ray Rears at P.O. Box 661, Central City, CO 80427 or email to rrears@co.gilpin.co.us. This is a significant project for Gilpin County, and it’s important that we make people as well informed as possible.