The Philomath City Council took a final vote on two psilocybin-related ordinances during a meeting Monday night that extends a ban on those types of businesses in town for two more years until the matter can go to a public vote at the next general election in 2026.
Councilors had debated specifics of psilocybin businesses being located in Philomath over a couple of meetings and also gathered public feedback during a Nov. 21 town hall.
Psilocybin in Philomath? Maybe, maybe not but officials, citizens want more data
A handful of Philomath residents turned out Thursday night for a city-hosted open house to provide input and ask questions about the possibility of psilocybin-related businesses coming to town at some point in the future. The overriding theme for the evening appeared to be caution — the need for more data to come forward on…
Passage of the two ordinances not only extended the ban and referred it to a future ballot but established time, place and manner regulations on those businesses if voters ultimately decide to allow them in the city limits.
During previous deliberations, the council opted to add a restriction that would prohibit psilocybin manufacturing facilities or service centers from being located within 1,000 feet of any public library or public park.
The primary issue related to the ordinance revision at the council’s Nov. 12 meeting involved concerns that discharged patients who may still be experiencing the effects of the drug could come across unsupervised children at those types of locations.
City Councilor Christopher McMorran made a motion to change the wording of that restriction in the ordinance from parks to playgrounds.
“In listening to the folks talk about why they wanted parks in there, it felt like the only thing that kept coming up was because there are playgrounds and their kids are on the playgrounds,” McMorran said, referencing notes out of the town hall meeting. “So I figured if that’s the reason for not wanting it to be near a park, we should just say playground instead of park.”
City Manager Chris Workman briefly went through park locations in town that do not have playgrounds to illustrate how the motion would impact the map of where such businesses could be located.
The amendment passed on a unanimous vote.
Roll-call votes on each ordinance followed and both passed by 5-1 margins (Jessica Andrade nay).
