Subdivision plat paves way for Lodge Casino lot

A separate application was submitted by the casino for the development of a surface parking lot on this property. Preliminary construction plans have been submitted by the applicant as part of Certificates of Appropriateness and a Site Development Plan, according to the report, and the applications and are being processed concurrently.

Vincent Harris with Baseline Corporation presented slides of the project and said the application involved a lot of paper work. He presented the proposal for the plat and the parking lot together.

The property is platted as two lots – Lot 1 and Lot 2 of the Dakota Blackhawk Subdivision, according to the report. The Lodge Casino now desires to remove the lot line between Lot 1 and Lot 2 and combine the property into a single 2.23 acre lot.

Pursuant to City subdivision regulations, any subdivision that creates four lots or less is processed as a minor subdivision plat. The current lot line common to the two existing lots follows the City of Black Hawk Gaming District boundary, according to the report.

The subject property is currently vacant and is located in the Gaming Outstanding Lodging and Dining (GOLD) zone district.

The parking lot application concerns the demolition of existing structures, buildings and walls, construction of a new parking lot, landscaping and a reconstructed median and sidewalk along Main Street, according to the report. The application is for a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) for demolition, a COA for excavation of the hillside and construction of the new parking lot and retaining walls, and a Site Development Plan for the parking lot and grading.

After submittal, it was determined that the applicant’s proposal would require the approval of a variance to the landscaping standards along Main Street. Rock walls and remnant foundations on the site and the demolition of these walls requires a COA be approved by City Council. A conduit with a City fiber optic line (water department communication line) crosses underground on a corner of the property on the west side.

Construction of the project will require excavation of a portion of the hillside between Bobtail Street and Main Street. A City excavation permit and a State of Colorado demolition permit will be required, according to the report. The median in Main Street between the Lodge Casino and the proposed parking lot is proposed to be reconstructed to accommodate the proposed left turn movements into the new parking lot.

The ultimate proposal is a 69-space parking lot with one new entrance point on Main Street. The parking lot is approximately 75 feet deep along the 445-feet long frontage south of Main Street. Municipal regulations require a 10-foot wide landscape strip along Main Street, but the applicant has requested a variance from this streetscape standard and, in lieu, intends to provide some landscaping at the east and west ends of the project.

The project would include a 60-foot-high rock retaining wall similar to the wall in the Canyon Casino parking lot, Harris said. It would have a black rail on top and the upper third would be stacked rock with half of the hillside remaining.

It would be a rock-based wall with anchors and a mesh safety net, Harris said. The mesh material was not specified, and, according to City design standards, it is not appropriate. Gunite, or sprayed on cement, also is not preferred.

Harris recommended sculpted concrete similar to that used in back of the Post Office instead of the mesh, and he outlined 11 conditions for the project. He said the Subdivision and Site Improvement Agreements were signed at 2:45 p.m. that afternoon.

Applicant Dave Grenunwald from Cleveland, Ohio, said he sat here previously for the approval of the Lodge Casino. Being from Ohio, he was mystified by the sculpted concrete, but he understands the Council’s desire for it.

“We have agreed down to the sculpted concrete,” Grunenwald said. “The cost of this scares the bejesus out of me. I’m looking forward to starting the process.”

The Council approved the subdivision plat and the agreements for the new parking lot with the 11 conditions and the modification of the sculpted concrete instead of mesh.

City Attorney Corey Hoffmann introduced an ordinance creating a process for disconnecting territory from the City. The power of annexation and disconnection is legislative in nature, and an order of annexation or disconnection must be supported by statutory authorization, according to the request for Council action.

“Colorado statutes include disconnection processes, but these processes do not apply to home rule municipalities,” according to the request. “Because the statutory processes for disconnection have been held not to apply to home rule municipalities, the City proposed to adopt by ordinance its own disconnection process.”

The ordinance proposes disconnection following a property owner petition and disconnection following City initiated application.

Hoffmann said one property lies half in the County and half in the City, and he anticipates the property owner would come to the Council and ask to disconnect from the City. The Council approved the ordinance.

Hoffmann also introduced a resolution approving the purchase and sale agreement for the Paymaster Lode parcel on Maryland Mountain. The City is in the process of acquiring 11 separate parcels on Maryland Mountain that are along or adjacent to the alignment of the Main Tramway line, according to the request.

This main line will be the base trail for the Maryland Mountain open space. The City has received the executed purchase and sale agreement for the Paymaster Lode for $28,000. The Council approved the resolution.

Later in the meeting, Hoffmann said that of the 11 parcels needed for the Maryland Mountain open space, five are still remaining.

They have a significant disagreement for the property at 531 Chase Street and the owner of the Surprise Load has retained counsel.

Three properties are part of a partnership dispute, and members of the partnership are fighting about who owns them. “I’m confident we can get them all resolved. We’re remarkably close to getting this resolved,” Hoffmann said.

Mayor David Spellman introduced a resolution regarding the official corporate seal of Black Hawk. He said he has been doing a lot of research into the seal and the devices portrayed on it, which include an American Indian, an eagle and a tiger.

After the City’s sesquicentennial, Spellman became curious as to why these symbols were on the seal. He said this was information that had not been heard before although a lot of misinformation had been disseminated about it.

After John H. Gregory struck gold in the area, three fellows, William L. Lee, Dr. Fredrick H. Judd and Milo Lee hauled tons of machinery by oxen teams to the area from their homes in the Midwest, Spellman said. By 1860, they had established a mill on the downhill side of Gregory Street. They christened it the Black Hawk Mill.

After striking the Bobtail and Gregory loads, they purchased two more mills, and by 1862 they were making $3,000 a month, which would be equivalent to more than $2.1 million today. The three men started to invest in the community and built the church which is now the location of City Hall, Spellman said.

“They were the powerhouse at the time, the controlling influence,” Spellman said. Also in 1862, John J. Pratt and Bela S. Buell produced a lithograph map identifying the community as Enterprise, but Lee, Judd and Lee were determined to ensure that the community surrounding their mill would be known as Black Hawk Point, according to the resolution.

They had a lithograph produced titled, “View of Black Hawk Point.” At the bottom of the lithograph, the artist, John E. Dillingham, designed a vignette, which included an American Indian, an eagle and a tiger. These devices symbolized the three mills owned by Lee, Judd and Lee, according to the resolution.

The vignette was surmounted with the word, “Perseverando,” to make prominent to the general public that Black Hawk Point would preserve, push forward and be preserved, according to the resolution. They also instructed Dillingham to include the Latin phrase, “Noli Me Tangere,” which translates into “do not meddle,” “do not interfere,” or “don’t tread on me.”

All subsequent maps of the area named the city Black Hawk Point, or Black Hawk. On March 11, 1864, Black Hawk Point was incorporated as the City of Black Hawk, making it the second oldest incorporated city in Colorado, and on April 19, 1864, the vignette on the lithograph was ordained as the official seal for the City of Black Hawk.

Spellman told the Council that this is why the meeting of the Black Hawk City Council was moved to April 19, 2017, in commemoration of the date the City’s official seal was ordained. The resolution ordains “Noli Me Tangere,” as the City’s official motto and “causes to be affixed in the Black Hawk Council Chambers appropriate bronze castings in ‘rocker’ configuration the motto and the word, “Perseverando.”

The Council approved the resolution. The Black Hawk City Council gathered for a special meeting at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 3, 2017.

(Originally published in the May 4, 2017 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)