The Wilmette Park District may require drone operators to get a permit to fly on Park District property following concerns about the remotely-operated aerial vehicles flying at public events, as well as questions from residents about where they can be operated.
Wilmette Recreation Superintendent Kathy Bingham said she and other district officials decided to review control options after drones began to fly above Wilmette parks.
“We started seeing them at some of our bigger events,” she said. “We noticed three of them during the (2015) July 3 celebration. And then we started getting requests from the public, where people would come to us and ask, ‘Hey, can I fly this in the park?'”
Drones often have cameras that can take photos or videos of passing scenery. Bingham said requiring permits for drones would allow parks officials to know where and when the unmanned vehicles are flying. This is partly because the units can pose safety problems, but also because of privacy issues, she said.
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“In my limited experience of using one, they’re difficult to control, so what happens when someone loses control – and it does happen – and the thing crashes? Also, we don’t want them flying over our pool or on the beaches taking pictures,” Bingham said.
Mike Braiman, Wilmette’s assistant village manager, said the village has no municipal ordinances covering drones because there are federal regulations that do so.
Federal Aviation Administration regulations address how low drones – known officially as unmanned aerial vehicles – can fly, and apply to both commercial and hobby-type drones.
The Wilmette Park District proposal would revamp existing ordinance language to include drones and to designate them as model aircraft, Bingham told commissioners at an April 4 lakefront committee meeting. The proposal must still be reviewed by the Park Board’s financial planning and policy committee, which meets next on April 25, before it can approval by the full Board.
The proposal would ban drone flights on or in any Park District property, unless operators get a permit from the district, she said. Permitted drones would also have to fly no lower than the minimum safety requirements set by the FAA or other governmental authority.
Bingham said operating without a permit would open drone pilots to being ticketed by police, although she acknowledged that it could initially be difficult to enforce the new rule.
“It’s like enforcing anything. You do education for awhile, and if we see someone flying without a permit, we tell them that they can’t do it,” she said.
Bingham said district staff haven’t decided on any permit costs. Commercial drone operators might be required to pay a small fee while private operators might not, she said. Currently, model plane operators aren’t charged for permits but are required to get them, she said.
Bingham said that while researching the issue, Park District officials learned that few other local park districts or departments have drone policies.
“Everyone is kind of scrambling to put something in place,” she said.
Robert Smith, executive director of the Winnetka Park District, said his district is “in the process of revising our policy manuals, and (drones) are part of that.”
The Evanston City Council in 2013 approved a two-year moratorium on the use of drones in the city that expired last May. Now the city, including its department of parks and recreation, is using federal rules to regulate drone use, according to Martha Logan, the city’s community engagement manager.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy