John Scarffe, Black Hawk.   The third time was the charm for Canyon Casino. On its third consecutive public hearing, Canyon Casino received approval for a surface parking lot from the Black Hawk City Council during a regular meeting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, August 22, 2018, at 211 Church Street. The Council also approved a related agreement with the Lodge Casino and the Gilpin Casino to participate in the Enhanced Sales Tax Incentive Program.

Mayor David Spellman introduced the three resolutions regarding the Canyon Casino Park lot, which were continued from the Council’s July 25 and August 8, 2018, meetings. “This is a continuation of a continuation,” Spellman said.

Vince Harris, with Baseline Corporation, said the third time is a charm. This project involves excavation for a new parking lot adjacent to Main Street improvements, and he introduced three resolutions. The first, conditionally approves the Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) and the Site Development Plan (SDP) for the Canyon Parking Lot, a resolution approving the Third Amendment to the Subdivision/Site Improvement Agreement between Black Hawk and JIJE, LLC, and a resolution approving the Enhanced Sales Tax Incentive Program Agreement between the City and the Lodge Casino, LLC, and the Gilpin Casino, LLC.

At the August 8, 2018, meeting, City Attorney Corey Hoffmann told the Council they had continued this on July 25 to evaluate options for finishes and a new sign. Staff was also working with the applicant to provide a Subdivision/Site Improvement Agreement (SIA) to the City Council.

The City of Black Hawk received an amended application from Dakota/Canyon, LLC/Jacobs Entertainment, LLC, concerning its property at 131 Main Street for a proposed parking lot, according to the staff report. This amended application follows the January 24, 2018, approval for the construction of a three-floor parking garage and associated improvements on the same property.

On July 25, 2018, the City Council did not take any action except to continue this public hearing, since the previously proposed excavated wall treatment with wire mesh from the bottom of the new cut to the top of the existing cut, about 125 feet high, seemed unacceptable to City Council.

The overall amended application concerns the deletion of the previously approved three-level parking garage from the proposed development and now proposes to instead construct a surface parking lot. This new amendment and resubmitted application continues to propose demolition of existing walls, major excavation, rock walls, landscaping and public improvements including a sidewalk along Main Street and street improvements as well as a new, very large, sign displaying the name of the City along with the City logo.

The applicant provided two alternative sign variations, each with different lighting techniques and size of letters for the words “Black Hawk” and the City logo. The staff recommendation, in the staff report to the City Council presented on July 25, 2018, was to have the entire 125-foot-tall excavated wall finished in a colored and sculpted concrete finish, according to the request.

The finish was envisioned to match the sculpted concrete wall finish recently completed on the neighboring ownership for the Dakota site and parking lot now getting close to completion. The applicant did not support the staff recommendation, and in lieu of such a finish, the applicant requested that this revised application with either of the proposed signs be approved as a potential alternative to colored and sculpted concrete, staff wrote.

The newly amended project proposes to not have the previously approved three-level parking garage from the development plan, and, as an alternative, to have only a surface parking lot. The newly proposed parking lot will contain 207 parking spaces.

The previously approved SDP planned for a parking garage with 302 parking spaces and a surface lot, associated with the garage construction, with 97 parking spaces. The total proposed parking spaces under the previously approved development plan was 399 spaces. The new SDP proposes a reduction of 192 parking spaces from the previously approved SDP.

The amended proposal continues access to the new parking lot from the east, through the adjacent Dakota parking lot access drive. The amended grading plan adjusts the previously approved grading so that vehicles can traverse through the Canyon parking lot when either entering or exiting from the Dakota parking lot.

The planned access is designed in the same location as previously approved. Construction of the amended project will require excavation of the site surface and portions of the hillside between Bobtail Street and Main Street. According to submitted documentation, about 47,000 cubic yards of material will be excavated from the site.

This is compared to the previously approved garage excavation requiring about 81,100 cubic yards of excavated material. The amended parking lot will contain about 76,000 square feet of paved parking surface.

This equates to about 48 percent of the lot. Harris said that sculpted concrete will be used on the left, which is the existing cut about half way, and the retaining wall comes out so the parking lot will be at street level.

After seeing photographs of the proposed huge Black Hawk sign, Council agreed they did not like the proposed sign, so Spellman said that left Canyon Casino with sculpted concrete as an option. David Gruenwald, owner of Dakota/Canyon, LLC/Jacobs Entertainment, LLC, said that what he is proposing is $1 million.

Spellman asked Council if it was important that Canyon pay for it now, and the City rebated back to them for the $300,000 through device fees.

Hoffmann said the City has an existing program in its code for sharing sales tax. If it is done with sales tax instead of device fees, everyone will share the success.

“We would figure out a base, and everything over that base we would share back over a period of time. We will have to artificially create a base, but it can be done,” Hoffmann said. The Lodge has a lot of sales tax generators.

The Council then continued the public hearing to August 22, as Harris told the Council that this is a different amended plan and has been updated since the August 8 meeting. The Dakota Casino site has the wall completed, and it connects to the west edge of that wall.

The area to be sculpted runs from the end of the existing Dakota wall and would match that site, Harris said. He just met with the applicant and agreed on language. It will have a short metal railing on top of the wall.

Staff had five conditions, and they agreed on four of the five with their wording. “In summary, we recommend approval of the COA with those conditions and recommend approval of the SDP,” Harris said.

Hoffman said that everyone has worked extremely hard to get this application completed, and he did have a change for the date of project completion to September 30, 2019. September is still an outside date. If it is not completed, the City has the ability to draw on security to complete the project.

Spellman said that the City has the security to complete the sculpted concrete. Canyon Casino won’t have parking until it is all complete. They really want to have the additional parking.

Hoffmann said staff came up with a mechanism based on City regulations to share in the cost. The City has an existing sales tax share back program for this kind of project.

If the developer’s sales tax meets a certain threshold, the City shares back, so the developer is incentivized to generate sales tax, Hoffmann said. The City believes it will be about $60,000 per year. “At the end of the day, we hope the $300,000 will be covered or the City will pay it back,” Hoffmann said.

The Lodge Casino and The Gilpin Casino are incurring eligible improvements for public or public-related purposes and qualify to participate in the Enhanced Sales Tax Incentive Program, according to the request. The developer will be eligible for a rebate of the Enhanced Sales Tax generated over the next five years with a maximum rebate of $300,000.

The Council approved the three resolutions for the Canyon Casino surface parking lot with a sculpted concrete wall. Matt Reed with Public Works introduced a resolution awarding the contract for design and construction of the Fire Station Restroom Renovation project to Symmetry Builders, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $58,094 for pre-construction services pertaining to the Fire Station Restroom Renovation Project.

Additional bathroom and shower facilities are necessary for Fire Department and Ambulance Authority employees residing at the Fire Station, according to the request for Council action. The design-build method of delivery was chosen for this project. A Request for Qualifications was publicly advertised, and the City received a total of six submissions from contractors.

After final negotiations on June 18, 2018, the selection panel chose the team led by Symmetry Builders to complete this project, according to the request.

Since then, Symmetry Builders has been issued an interim programming design contract to prepare multiple floor plan options.

The project team for construction recommended an option that will add three restrooms to the second level. To create more space in the Fire Station, the Fire Department administrative Staff would be permanently relocated to the office suite above the convenience store at 137 Clear Creek Street.

A kitchenette within this office suite would be constructed by Symmetry Builders, and preconstruction costs for this kitchenette are included. A subsequent resolution will be presented at a later City Council meeting to approve the Design-Build Amendment.

Reed told the Council that the restroom would add three bathrooms including showers.

This resolution approves the design and build contract but would only pay for design. Then they will come with a design and build amendment, and construction would begin around the first part of the year.
The Council approved the resolution awarding the contract for design and construction of the Fire Station Restroom Renovation project to Symmetry Builders, Inc.

(Originally published in the September 6, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)