County considers drone rules: Officials studying policy as more drones take to the skies

As more and more drones are taking to the skies, San Mateo County officials are starting to look at ways to regulate them. The Board of Supervisors will conduct a study session Tuesday on their effects related especially to being used around two county-owned airports and in county parks. There is concern that the device’s users are increasingly losing control of the remote-controlled aircraft, said Supervisor Don Horsley. Complaints about their use come from all around the county but especially on the coast near farms, marine preserves or in the mountains where peregrine falcons nest, Horsley said. Some users like to fly their camera-equipped drones near falcon nests that could prove detrimental, Horsley said. “They could have a negative impact on future populations,” he said. People are also using drones to capture images of nesting shorebirds along Devil’s Slide trail and to spy on harbor seals where they breed and raise young, said county Parks Director Marlene Finley. Permits are required to fly a drones in a county parks, she said. Some cattle ranchers have also complained that people use the drones to scare their livestock, Horsley said...more