New ordinance would take safety, privacy into account
By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
The City of Elkhorn Common Council plans to look at – and potentially vote on – enacting a new ordinance that would apply to the use of unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly referred to as drones, within city limits at its April 20 meeting.
At the April 5 council meeting, following a request from alderman Scott McClory, city attorney Ward Phillips said he began to research whether or not Elkhorn could enact a drone ordinance and if so, what it could include.
Phillips said there are numerous statutes that already exist on the issue, some more related to municipalities than others, but said what’s clear is as long as a municipality adheres to federal guidelines it can create an ordinance on the use of drones.
He said he put together an ordinance that combines elements from similar ordinances enacted in Greenfield and Hudson.
With concerns about how it might affect the use of drones by city officials and organizations such as the Walworth County Fair and Elkhorn Area Chamber of Commerce, Phillips said he included some exceptions in the draft ordinance.
Those exceptions would allow any individual or company hired by the city to operate a UAV while completing services they were hired for by the city, and would also allow the city to issue permits for individuals or companies hired by event organizers to record elements of events to use a UAV.
Phillips noted that he attempted to draft the ordinance as narrowly as possible to address the key issues at play, which are harassment and privacy.
“One is people that feel harassed because they have these things literally over their head, and also privacy issues,” Phillips said.
“Having drones flying around in your backyard if you’re trying to lay out (in the sun) or you have kids playing back there, you don’t want people taking pictures of that stuff. That’s what this is intended to address,” he added.
Councilmembers agreed on reviewing the draft and submitting suggestions or concerns to Phillips so updates could be made to the draft ahead of the April 20 meeting, at which time the council might vote on the ordinance.
More on the proposed ordinance can be found in the April 15 Elkhorn Independent.
