Planning commission unanimously recommends local rules for 'natural medicine' businesses to county commissioners

The El Paso County Planning Commission unanimously voted to forward a proposed Land Development Code amendment (file LDC 2 43) to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration. The amendment would adopt local time, place and manner regulations for "natural medicine" businesses consistent with the state regulatory framework created after Colorado’s Proposition 122.

Planning Director Megan Harrington told the commission that Proposition 122 (2022) decriminalized personal use and cultivation of certain psychedelic mushrooms and that State Bill 23-290 establishes a state licensing and regulatory scheme. Harrington said the state "will start to issue licenses ... applications being accepted to the state as early as Dec. 31." She described four state license types covered in the amendment: natural medicine healing centers, cultivation centers, product manufacturers and testing facilities.

Staff proposed definitions (drawn from the state statute), time/place/manner rules and development standards. Key elements discussed by staff and commissioners included:

- Zoning and permitted locations: Staff recommended permitting natural medicine businesses in the CS, C1, C2 and M zone districts (the same approach used historically for medical marijuana). Commissioners and staff noted that C1, C2 and M are obsolete zone labels that will be addressed in a future land development code rewrite; staff said reasonable local placement must be provided and that applicants could seek rezoning to CS if appropriate.

- Buffers and measurement: Staff proposed a one-mile buffer from elementary, secondary and high schools and a 1,000-foot buffer from residentially used properties or properties zoned to permit residential use, principal college campuses, public parks, religious institutions and state-licensed drug or alcohol treatment facilities. Harrington said distances would be computed by "direct measurement of the route of direct pedestrian access" and that measurement is taken from the nearest property line of the protected use to the portion of the building in which the natural medicine business would be located.

- Personal cultivation: Staff said the county cannot prohibit personal cultivation and proposed a local limit consistent with the state: cultivation accessory to a single-family residence in a separate enclosed and locked area not to exceed a 12-by-12 foot area; all occupants must be at least 21; the activity cannot be considered a home occupation and must have no detectable odors.

- Operations and design: Staff recommended limiting hours to daytime hours (for example, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays) and applying development standards for public view, lighting, odor mitigation, secure storage and secure disposal. Harrington and County attorney Terry Sample said that "secure disposal" and certain licensing requirements are defined in the state regulatory act; storage provisions in the draft require that storage for licensed facilities be located within a permanent building, and staff said they could add language specifying on‑site licensed-facility storage if the commission preferred.

- Co-location and ownership limits: County attorney Terry Sample advised that the state regulatory act does not prohibit co-location of licensed functions on the same property and that the act limits an individual facilitator's financial interest to no more than three licensed natural medicine businesses.

- Mapping and local availability: Staff presented GIS-based maps showing approximately four locations in unincorporated El Paso County that, under the staff buffer assumptions, could host a natural medicine business without additional rezoning — two sites in the Cimarron Hills area, a CS-zoned property near Powers, and a large M-zoned property east of Las Vegas Street; staff also noted an area outside Peterson Air Force Base that met the buffer criteria. Staff cautioned that their map uses radial buffers and that final determinations would use direct pedestrian-route measurement and up-to-date GIS layers (the county clerk maintains a layer for principal college campuses used in medical-marijuana licensing).

Commissioners asked questions about co-location of testing and manufacturing, whether hours and storage language should require relationships to licensed facilities, enforcement of personal-cultivation rules, and why the draft mirrors medical marijuana rules rather than an industrial zoning approach. Harrington said the county is modeling the local framework on existing medical marijuana regulations to have an initial set of local rules in place by the time state licensing begins, and that the land development code rewrite could revisit zoning choices later.

Motion and vote: Commissioner Marais moved to approve the draft amendment (file LDC 2 43) and forward it to the Board of County Commissioners; Commissioner Whitney seconded. The commission approved the recommendation unanimously on roll call and will transmit the recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners for their consideration.

Next steps: The commission's action is a recommendation; the state licensing program and the Board of County Commissioners' consideration will determine where and how natural medicine businesses may operate in unincorporated El Paso County.