JACKSON – The Mississippi Gaming Commission delayed a decision on a site approval request Thursday from a group asking to build a casino on part of the former Vicksburg Chemical site, saying the applicants must first clear zoning hurdles with the city.

Mississippi Bluffs Development LLC, headed in part by Denver-based developer Paul Bunge of Silver Tip of Mississippi LLC, remained on the agenda for the monthly meeting of the state’s gaming oversight board until the item came up.

On the recommendation of executive director Larry Gregory, the commission decided to hear the request at a future meeting. No representative of the company attended Thursday’s meeting.

Nancy Allen of Vicksburg’s zoning department said late Thursday the group’s application to have its zoning designation has not arrived, but was expected. If it does come in by the final week of the month, it will appear on the Vicksburg Board of Zoning Appeals agenda for July 11.

The company’s intention to apply for a gaming license came as a surprise, Mayor Laurence Leyens has said. Previously, the group has talked only about developing a golf course and residential and retail properties on the 480-acre tract south of Rifle Range Road.

Its application to the Gaming Commission estimates having 1,500 slot machines and 35 table games in a 50,000-square-foot casino on one of four parcels of land formerly occupied by the chemical plant, vacant since its owners declared bankruptcy in 2002.

The parcel on the west side of Warrenton Road, like three of the four existing casinos in Vicksburg, borders the Mississippi River and is the smallest of the four parcels in the tract.

In December, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which obtained the deed to the tract in the bankruptcy action, agreed to have Silver Tip spend $8 million to clean up the portion used for chemical production and burial of waste.

Bunge has said no development would take place on the former plant site, which was contaminated. That would appear to be the case, as the intent to apply for the casino license identifies a parcel across Warrenton Road from the plant site.

The project joins two other proposed casinos that are further along in the process. Lakes Gaming Mississippi LLC received site approval in February 2005 and its development plan was OK’d in July 2005. Its site approval expires Feb. 16, 2007.

The Lakes casino is expected to cost about $200 million and is planned to be built on pilings along the Mississippi River near Meadow Lane.

The other, Riverwalk Casino, received its site approval in July 2005, and its development plan was approved in December 2005. Its site approval expires July 14, 2007.

The Riverwalk casino is a $42 million development and is to be built on an area of land above the river and north of Rainbow Casino near the Warrenton neighborhood.

Site approval is granted for two years, and a third approval is necessary from the Mississippi Gaming Commission.

Additionally, a new casino must have a permit issued by the city.