No appeal was filed, but Ameristar Casino did not make enough of a case to have a Vicksburg ordinance waived for a 200-foot hotel to be built near Vicksburg National Military Park land, said Superintendent Monika Mayr.

“What I was trying to do was to make sure the decision was informed,” the park’s chief of operations told members of the Port City Kiwanis Club Tuesday of her presentation to Vicksburg officials. “We were making sure they knew why the ordinance was there, which is to protect the views of the river.”

After the state authorized riverside casinos in 1990 and Warren County voters approved development in 1992, a 1993 city ordinance was drafted setting requirements.

The comprehensive law limits the height of construction along the Mississippi River to 65 feet to preserve “view corridors,” including views of the river from three National Park Service properties – including Louisiana Circle and Navy Circle which have scenic loops for vehicles.

After Ameristar proposed the 14-story hotel and multistory parking garage, the Vicksburg Board of Zoning Appeals knotted 2-2 on the matter. On June 30, Mayor Laurence Leyens, South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman and then-North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young voted unanimously to give clearance. Any appeal would have been required within 10 days in Warren County Circuit Court.

At the hearing and before, Ameristar presented computerized projections showing the hotel, to be Vicksburg’s tallest building, is nestled into the hillside where a main parking area is now located and the parking garage will extend from the north end of the casino boat. Views from river overlooks are not blocked, according to the drawings, and change only slightly.

Still, Mayr, who urged caution in her appearance in the public hearing on the matter, told Kiwanians that while she thought city board members understood the issue, she expressed reservations over Ameristar’s arguments for having the ordinance waived.

“What I was trying to do was to make sure the decision was informed,” she said, “We were making sure they knew why the ordinance was there, which is to protect the views of the river.”

The argument, Mayr said, was whether Ameristar’s plans met enough requirements to be granted an exception to the ordinance.

“I don’t think they made the argument to meet those requirements,” Mayr said.

Mayr also provided an update of the park’s plans during the next five years, which include purchasing a car wash on Washington Street and developing the land for better access to the park via South Fort. That property, between Navy and Louisiana circles, can now be reached only by foot.

Also on the agenda are repairing Connecting Avenue due to a partial road collapse that is now resulting in a detour from the main park route, and a stabilization of Gen. John C. Pemberton’s headquarters on Crawford Street so it can eventually open for public tours.

The work on Connecting Avenue should take close to a year, Mayr said, while the completion goal for stabilizing Pemberton’s headquarters is December 2006.

The park here was created by Congress in 1899 in sacred memory of Union and Confederate forces who participated in key battles over national unity in 1862 and 1863. The main park body encompasses siege lines on the city’s perimeter. Non-contingent properties include the overlooks on Washington, Pemberton Headquarters and a Louisiana site, Grant’s Canal, showing remnants of an effort by the Union commander to reroute the Mississippi River away from Vicksburg.