The City of Vicksburg has become involved in Portofino Resort LLC’s attempt to get a gaming license to operate a casino adjacent to the Portofino Hotel.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday approved filing a 408 floodwall permit application with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allow Portofino to install a new elevated walkway for the proposed casino, which papers filed with the Mississippi Gaming Commission indicate will be built on land near the hotel.

City Attorney Nancy Thomas said the city was filing the application because it operates the floodwall that runs along the Mississippi River and crosses the Portofino property. The property is near the site of the former Grand Station Casino gaming barge, which was removed in 2013.

Approval by the Corps is required for Portofino to get its gaming license.

“And we are, as the operators of the floodwall, required to submit the application to the Corps for review and approval,” Thomas said.

She added the permit involves construction projects that affect the floodwall, and the company wants to install pilings by the floodwall.

“They’re not putting pilings in there for their health,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said. “They’re about to apply for a license. This (the Corps permit) is a prerequisite to regulate or to have a casino. The city has no authority to regulate or deregulate casinos. Our job is to keep our doors open for business.”

Portofino Resort wants to build a 30,000-square-foot casino on shore at 1310 Mulberry St., the site of the former Harrah’s, Horizon and Grand Station casinos, according to legal notices and an application filed with state gaming regulators.

According to papers filed with the Mississippi Gaming Commission, Portofino’s details indicate a permanent structure on about 11.5 acres, which means the developers plan to comply with a state law passed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that allows casinos to be built up to 800 feet from water.

Harrah’s operated at the site from 1993 until 2003, when it sold its Vicksburg property to Columbia Sussex. The names on the casino and hotel changed to Horizon until the fall 2010, when Tropicana Entertainment, which was part of Columbia Sussex and operated Horizon, went bankrupt and closed the casino.

In 2011, the venue reopened as Grand Station, but closed in March 2012 amid bankruptcy.

From 1993 until the Grand Station bankruptcy, the casino was located on a barge built to look like a riverboat that was moored in the Mississippi next to the hotel and surrounded by a cofferdam.

The former casino vessel was auctioned for scrap metal in April 2013 and hauled away. Portofino Hotel operates in the same structure as the previous three casino hotels, an edifice owned by Vicksburg Hotel LLC, also based in Biloxi.

Vicksburg’s four casinos are Ameristar, Lady Luck, DiamondJacks and Riverwalk, the last of which opened in 2008.