Colorado Springs is starting to look at how to manage and restrict facilities that can begin providing psilocybin and psychedelic treatments in the city next year.

The City Council’s work session and council meeting Tuesday will include a first look at the proposed zoning regulations for natural medicine healing centers that would provide supervised doses of psilocybin psychedelic mushrooms, and potentially other naturally occurring psychoactive substances.

The proposed zoning ordinances would prevent any healing centers from opening within a mile of a school, child care facility, or drug and alcohol treatment center in Colorado Springs. Outside of those zones, the centers will not be allowed in any residential areas and would be treated like a medical office.

In 2022 Colorado voters approved Proposition 122 to decriminalize the sale and use of psychedelic mushrooms. The state completed the regulatory rules for the industry in August and will begin accepting applications for licensed centers on Dec. 31.

The law allows for state-licensed healing centers where people 21 or older can receive supervised doses of the mushrooms as a treatment. The drugs have increasingly been viewed as a treatment option for mental health challenges including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Planning Director Kevin Walker said the rollout of the new treatment felt like an experiment. Colorado is just the second state in the country to permit the industry.

“We’re being a little bit conservative around whether or not this is something good and how to regulate it because we don’t know what the impacts are,” Walker said.

A map prepared by the city shows the majority of the city would prohibit the centers with the mile cutoffs. Healing centers could be allowed in the far east side of the city limits, past U.S. 24 and Powers Boulevard, and in a handful of pockets along the city’s western boundaries.

The mile setback limit is the same the City Council approved earlier this year for recreational marijuana businesses, in an attempt to preemptively limit store locations if city voters approved Ballot Question 300. Walker said it made sense to start with that proposal because marijuana and psilocybin are federally restricted as Schedule 1 drugs.

“The place where it’s the most restrictive in both of these cases is where the use intersects with citizens. We are trying to make sure it’s safe and secure,” Walker said.

The proposed zoning sets less restrictive limits for the businesses that grow, manufacture or test psilocybin. The other natural medicine businesses would have to be at least 1,000 feet away from a school, child care facility or drug and alcohol treatment center.

Home growth and manufacture of the substances would not be permitted under the city’s current draft ordinances.

Proposition 122 does not allow local governments to ban the substances at the local level or enforce harsher criminal penalties for violations. The law does allow localities to regulate the “time, place and manner” of natural healing centers through zoning.