Should Drone Pilots Need Permits to Fly Over Wilmette Parks?

Look! Up in the sky!

It's a bird! It's a plane!

It's ... a fadish, personal aerial device that has the potential to become a public nuisance for Wilmette park-goers.

The Wilmette Park District is considering what—if any—rules and restrictions the district should create for individuals who want to remotely pilot drones on park property during public events, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Kathy Bingham, Wilmette's superintendent of recreation, originally brought up the topic of drones during a Feb. 1 meeting of the park district's lakefront committee, suggesting that the parks staff work with village attorneys to create a drone policy before the summer.

A proposal was worked up and presented by Bingham to park commissioners at the committee's April 4 meeting, the Tribune reports. Under the proposed plan, drones would be treated the same as model airplanes, and they could only be flown over park property if the pilots had a district permit, the report stated.

Pilots also would be subject to any Federal Aviation Administration rules regarding the flying altitude drones and other regulations, the report added.

Before it can be adopted, the proposal needs the park's financial planning and policy committee to sign off on it before it can go before the board to be approved, according to the Tribune.

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