Jacksonville is set to be the home of a new industry now that the city has approved measures allowing a proposed cannabis craft grow facility to move forward.
The Jacksonville City Council approved a pair of measures related to the former AC Humko plant during their only regular December meeting last night.
The second reading of an amendment to the city zoning ordinance allowing for an adult-use cannabis craft grow facility to operate within city limits was approved by the council. The use of the emergency clause to hold both the first and second reading of a zoning change for the property was also approved. The Council passed all of the measures unanimously.
The approvals were the final hurdle Wyvern Botanicals needed to clear with the city to move forward with finalizing the purchase of the 61-acre site located at 1201 East Morton Avenue.
Dennis Werth, a member of the Wyvern Botanicals ownership group says he’s happy to have reached this point and his group is ready to get moving on the project. “It’s very relieving. It’s been a long time coming and we’re just anxious to get rolling and get started. We’re still waiting on some things to come back from the state that we had to reorganize.
And now that we have all of this behind us we can add that to our list and then move forward. We already have drawings made up for the inside of the 72,000-square-foot building, and I guess I can start picking out colors now because we’re going to have to paint it and clean everything up.”
Werth says the ownership group restructured the corporate entity during the process and the State of Illinois was needing final approval from the City of Jacksonville before issuing the final licensing for the operation.
Werth hopes that action will come soon so they can begin renovation work both inside and out. He says he’s familiar with the facility after passing it frequently during 24 years as a sales rep. Werth says the group plans to turn around what has long been an eyesore on the city’s east entrance.
“We’ll work on it a little bit at a time but we definitely want… you know that’s one of the first things you see and that’s what I’ve looked at for all these years coming into town with my other job. And it would be nice to get it cleaned up and just work at it steadily and just keep going with it.”
Werth says he does not know yet when Wyvern Botanicals will be up and running just yet with final approval from the state and renovations still ahead.
During last week’s Planning Commission meeting, Werth said his group has been in contact with the owners of Kush 21, the dispensary set to open soon in Jacksonville, and eventually, their craft grow products will be offered as part of Kush 21’s inventory.