Pismo Beach is cracking down on drone flights. Where can they still fly?
Pismo Beach is looking to keep drones out of more of its skies through a new ordinance that would narrow the options for where drones can be flown.
At Tuesday’s Pismo Beach City Council meeting, the City Council heard the first reading of a new ordinance that will significantly limit where drone launches, flights and landings are allowed.
In Pismo Beach, drones are currently only prohibited in the beach safety and play area along the coast — essentially all of the publicly owned beach and ocean area within city limits, according to the municipal code.
As is, drone operators also have to contend with some Federal Aviation Association and local limitations on where they can fly.
During the meeting, city attorney Dave Fleishman said regulating drone flights sits at an intersection of federal and local rules, as drone operators must already follow FAA licensing restrictions in the air.
“The second that drone leaves the ground, whether it’s the ground, on someone’s hand, the ground from the back of a pickup truck or the actual ground, it’s the jurisdiction of the FAA,” Fleishman said. “We have no jurisdiction once it gets into the air, so what we can control on the local basis is where it take takes off and lands.”
Where would new Pismo Beach ordinance prohibit drone flight?
Under the proposed ordinance, drones can only take off and land within the operator’s visual line of sight, and cannot take off or land within 25 feet of another person except the operator.
Drones cannot take off or land from city property or within 250 feet of city property without the city’s written permission under the ordinance, and can’t take off or land within 1,000 feet of emergency response incidents.
On private property, drones cannot take off or land without the owner’s written consent, and cannot take off or land within 250 feet of schools without the written OK of a school official.
The City Council initially considered whether that distance from both city property and schools should be 500 feet, but chose to drop the restriction to 250 instead.
The ordinance also prohibits drones from being equipped with weapons, and reckless operation of a drone posing a risk to people or property is similarly prohibited.
Perhaps most importantly, drones cannot take off or land with the purpose of capturing a person’s visual image, audio recording or any other physically impression in any place where the individual would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Commercial drone flights would require a business license, along with a city film permit or special event permit.
City Council weighs in on proposed Pismo Beach drone ordinance
Beyond expanding where drone flights are limited, the new ordinance was initially expected to make breaking it a misdemeanor.
That drew the ire of some City Council members, who said while they supported the restrictions, the punishment was too heavy.
As initially proposed, maximum misdemeanor enforcement could mean up to six months imprisonment and a $1,000 fine, though Fleishman said he’s never sought maximum enforcement for a municipal violation.
The council found that to be too restrictive, however, and instead recommended it be treated as an infraction, not a misdemeanor.
With that plus the modification to distance from city and school properties, the council ultimately voted 4-1 to introduce the ordinance, with Councilmember Scott Newton the sole “no” vote.
Newton said he wasn’t worried about how commercial operators will work under the new rules, but is concerned about people without knowledge of the ordinance accidentally breaking the new restrictions.
“When you take a map and you start circling all the areas that you’re not allowed to have a drone, period, I don’t know what percentage of the city that is, but it’s gonna be a large amount,” Newton said. “To think that on top of that, that one faces a misdemeanor possibly for it, makes no sense to me.”
The ordinance will return for an additional approval hearing with the council’s modifications at a future City Council meeting.
