I'm a city planner and a big fan of drones. I make them, fly them, and crash them regularly. It seems that most city laws concerning drones have been blanket laws to ban their use in certain spaces altogether. That seems short sighted.
Here I made a small proposal on how we could make zoning laws to maximize the good parts about drones and cut down on prospective nuisances. http://www.thehumanitarianspace.com/2014/08/zoning-and-urban-land-use-planning-for.html - I would LOVE to have feedback from within the drone community.
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- Wait, you posted this in August of 2014, and have gotten no "Likes" or responses ?!?
That is appalling, and happens too much as far as I am concerned!
There is one of the problems, that posts/threads like yours do not get more attention, even if the subject is covered previously, and I doubt your particular point has had much attention previously.
I agree J Smith. Every sector that can use these technologies to their advantage, including city planning, zoning, etc., needs to be voiced out so city and county seats can begin incorporating drone use into policy. I live in North Carolina, and I can only find state legislative actions regarding drone use, but not at the city level. When it comes to money, power, greed, etc., the powers that be, will find ways to keep the small operator squeezed down to just taking pictures of real estate. We need to keep our voices strong, continue to educate ourselves on current and projected technologies, FAA regulations (which are currently laughable), safety (of course OSHA is probably finding ways to incorporate their millions of requirements through the FAA), and much more.
The market is rising to the occasion, but so many are poorly educated (including me), and there is no one source that can centralize ALL the proper answers. To give you an idea on how silly the FAA is right now, I described to one at the FAA on not being able to have VLOS in the mountains of North Carolina. So he told me that I would need an avoidance system installed, AND I would need a chase plane! Really??! How cost effective do you think that would be? Or did he even think that the quadcopter would be flying in a hover mode most of the time, and how would a chase plane actually be able to monitor this?? Crazy.
Good Luck out there guys. I for one am leaving the Federal Government to pursue my own dream in the UAV community. There (is) money to be made, but our government is not acting on this, and while they lame duck this mess, there are millions of dollars that (could) be injected into our economy. If there are any ideas on the best approach to getting this mapped out correctly, educated properly, voiced properly, etc., I am all ears. Thanks
You are a City planner ?!? - What a great ally to have, at least for those in your City! lol...
You are absolutely right! I do not have time right now to check the link you posted, but have clicked to follow it, have "Liked" this post, and will endeavor to check back and see that link, and hope you get more input.