State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson has introduced a second bill in two years that intends to limit the use of drones.
Senate Bill 868, called the State Remote Piloted Aircraft Act, would ban the use of unmanned aerial vehicles within 500 feet of “critical infrastructure” such as power plants, bridges and the state Capitol, in wildlife refuges and state parks, within five miles of an airport and within 1,000 feet of a heliport.
Drone operators would be required to obtain permission to fly their unmanned aircraft in any of these spaces and would not be allowed to weaponize their vehicles.
The bill would also require operators to take out liability insurance or show proof of financial responsibility, but would also encourage “the use of remote piloted aircraft for news-gathering in a manner consistent with the fundamental right to privacy,” according to the legislation’s current text.
“We know there are many innovative and extremely valuable uses for drones, and we should encourage those and allow those to continue,” said Jackson, who represents Santa Barbara County in the State Senate. “The lack of clear rules about drone use is really creating significant and real problems. It’s undermining our safety, and it puts our natural resources and wildlife in harm’s way.”
Jackson’s first drone bill, which easily passed the Legislature last August but was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown the following month, would have made it a crime to fly a drone above private property, within 350 feet, without permission.
In a message Brown wrote when returning SB 142 to the Senate, he cited the bill’s potential for exposing “the occasional hobbyist and the FAA-approved commercial user alike to burdensome litigation and new causes of action.”
SB 868 is set to have an Appropriations Committee hearing on Monday, and Jackson said she expects it to go before the full Senate by the end of the month.
This bill “takes a much more comprehensive approach,” she told Noozhawk. “It’s designed to establish a framework for drone use. It prioritizes public safety, privacy and the safety of our wildlife.”
The Federal Aviation Administration recently released a map outlining the two-mile radius around the Santa Barbara Airport within which drone use is highly discouraged. Operators are required to register with the FAA for drones weighing between 0.55 grams and 55 pounds.
The vehicles are readily available for purchase online and in stores including Costco and Albertsons.
Though Santa Barbara has not seen any significant reports of drone misuse, an incident in Lompoc was taken before its City Council last month, where a resident was accused of spying on a neighbor with a camera-mounted drone that was flying close to the neighbor’s property.
“We are right in the thick of it — actually probably still a little bit ahead of the curve,” Jackson told Noozhawk of drone regulation. “But this is an issue whose time has clearly come.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.