PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) — Changes are being made to stop drones in Panama City Beach.
During Thursday morning’s meeting, Panama City Beach council members approved the first reading of changes to the city’s aviation ordinance.
They are now including drone restrictions.
The new addition to the ordinance prohibits flying drones between zero and 500 feet over private property.
Panama City Beach Councilwoman Mary Coburn said they decided to include the drone restrictions in the ordinance after receiving complaints from homeowners.
“We have been receiving some complaints on the city side from our residents,” Coburn said. “They’ve had issues with neighbors flying drones over their backyard. They felt like they were being spied on or harassed by these actions, so because of the complaints we wanted to address in our existing ordinance. We have an aviation ordinance, but it really didn’t specifically talk about the drones.”
At the next meeting, council members will have a second reading and they will take public comments.
