3 Things Every City Should Know About Drones By Matthew Colvin, National League of Cities With Congressional action on drones just around the corner, here are three things you should know about the current landscape of unmanned aerial vehicles. Imagine you and your family are trying to enjoy a Labor Day parade while twenty drones buzz loudly overhead, filming the parade route. Or maybe it’s your daughter’s big soccer game, and the same drones are flying just feet above their heads. What if your neighbor placed an order online late at night, only to have one buzz just past your bedroom window to deliver it? This is what our communities might look like if our mayors and councilmembers aren’t given the authority to decide if, when, and where drones operate. Unfortunately, this may be reality within a matter of months. With Congressional action on drones just around the corner, here are three things you should know about the current landscape of unmanned aerial vehicles. 1. Drones Are Already Here Roughly 700,000 recreational drones were sold in 2015, a 63 percent increase from the previous year. The vast majority of these drones are small, lightweight aircraft that
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pose very little threat to the safety of Americans when operated within the bounds of the law. Most recreational drone operators are now required to register with the FAA – but ensuring the more than one million model aircraft in our skies are following the letter of the law still largely falls to local law enforcement. Commercial drones are less prevalent for now, but it is a quickly growing field. The FAA has issued more than 2,600 exemptions to allow commercial drone operators to fly in the National Airspace System. While our online purchases may not be arriving on our doorsteps just yet, these drones are being used for a growing list of purposes, including aerial photography, crop monitoring, and conservation efforts. 2. States and Cities Are Acting Twenty-six states have already issued their own dronerelated regulations, nearly all 50 states have considered drone-related legislation, and a growing number of cities have begun issuing regulations on when and where drones can operate. Land use and zoning, regulating hours of flight at local airports, and enforcing sobriety laws and speed limits are all essential functions performed by cities, and it makes perfect
SOUTH DAKOTA MUNICIPALITIES
