The Jamestown Canna Company is moving forward with its plans to open a manufacturing center in the city.

John Volpe of the Jamestown Cannabis Company and Andy Johnson of EcoStrategies initially briefed city planning commissioners about a proposed development plan of the Cannabis Company’s 32-acre undeveloped property located at 1000 Allen St. for the use of a potential manufacturing site back in August. And it appears that Volpe is moving forward.

At a Sept. 19 city Planning Commission meeting, Volpe was back before the commission and gave updates about the proposed project and presented structural drawings for the commission members to review.

“We did get approval from the New York State DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) and the archaeological study resulted in no negative impact to the site,” Volpe said. “Those were two important things we needed.”

Volpe noted that the site called for a dry retention pond to be used for water runoff and that all utilities will be run underground. Moreover, Volpe said there is a sufficient electrical supply and sewer with a fire alarm wire, that the company will tie into as well as fiber optics.

“The dry retention pond has been approved by the DEC and everything has been designed with moving into Phase Two of development in the future,” Volpe said. “Our Phase One plan is a 100 foot wide by 200 foot post-frame building with steel siding; we anticipate an expansion as soon as we possibly could.”

Volpe commented on some of the reasons Jamestown was chosen as the preferred site location for the project.

“One of the best things going for us is the BPU (Board of Public Utilities),” he said. “We can buy credits for being 100% hydro power, that is huge to me personally, to do this responsibly. The BPU is a reason we want to build here.”

When questioned about job creation and possible expansions, Volpe chose to error on the side of caution.

“Conservatively, during Phase One we’d need to hire 35 individuals, but it has the potential to be a lot more than that, then adding more (positions) during Phase Two,” Volpe said. “We’ve got plenty of room up there, Phase Two would essentially increase our volume.”

A motion was made before the commission to approve the site plan as presented; it was carried with a 5-0 vote.