St. Boni MN says no to drones

[petersachs]

I don't expect expert legal advice here, but the following happened to me.(also, I don't want to thread jack):

I live in Southern California...in an HOA community. I have flown my Phantom 2 three times there. Had about 20 people come up and say ", wow, that thing is so neat, cool, etc, etc..." But I also had 2 older gentlemen (50's) come up to me right in my face. One said "I'm calling the Sheriff...invasion of privacy...blah blah". I smiled and basically ignored him.

Yesterday, some other Nosy know-it-all claimed ""You know these have been banned by the Homeowners association, blah blah.." I just stated "Oh Yeah? Show me..."....He did a lap in his cheesy Hummer H3 and I kept flying...

What is your opinion on HOA's banning UAV's??? Not like I couldn't go off property and fly it in...duh! I'm a homeowner there, and I know the HOA Board has not even discussed this, but I am sure everyone is talking about me flying it...

A photo of the community is attached. I just film/ photograph the sunsets, etc. and I am still learning how to get better and better at flying it. and yes, the Homeowners here are Nazi's!! Welcome to SoCal

They might be able to ban people from taking off while standing on their private property, but they have no say whatsoever in their flight. Nice shot by the way.

 

[bikermike]

Some might laugh, but I'm totally anti government/regulation.
Technology is such, that every voting citizen could vote on any/every topic with a secure online ballot, thus completely eliminating corruption, earmarks etc,
yet these crooked rich politicians tell us exactly what we're going to do/not do. "Land of the free"... until they make a law.

To be honest, I'm not real hip on the drones, the government will be spying on us even more... but their here, their only going to get bigger, more powerful, and soon, they'll be everywhere, whether I agree or not... so therefore I want to understand functionality, and capability as much as possible.

 

[bikermike]

"WE THE PEOPLE" need numerous aggressive reps.(Like Jesse Jackson) in all levels of government that stand up and make all sorts of noise, report to media etc. for the American Citizen, and their freedoms and rights. (or lack there of)
And theres no way if fought, charges would stick, but yeah, it's a hassle to deal with, court, time off work, maybe a lawyer etc. our government should reward any defendant financially and handsomely for bogus charges that cost us and the tax payers and government workers time and $. maybe then they'd follow the rules a little bit.
so where is the line? Can they ban tacos? Skateboards? long hair?
How about binoculars/telescopes? they can invade privacy. And their technology is far superior than even the best top of the line drone purchased or built by the public... why ain't nobody bitchin about invasion of privacy to them?

Oh, how I hate 'em... wuddy say we all go to St. Boni, and take over the skys, have a drone lollapalooza

And hell no I'm not takin my camera off, if they can tap my very expensive smartphones, track me by GPS, and god knows what else. leave my little plastic toy alone. f/n A-HOLES!!!

 

[EMCSQUAR]

Oh, how I hate 'em... wuddy say we all go to St. Boni, and take over the skys, have a drone lollapalooza

I'm there "Phantom-palooza - hosted by St Boni"! Or the first annual St Boni Drone Fest... (I'm going to make up a flyer and send it to their city council)

 

[OI Photography]

Or the first annual St Boni Drone Fest... (I'm going to make up a flyer and send it to their city council)

Everybody get together and take off just outside the city limits, then inundate their airspace with Chinese hardware.

 

[PhantomDave]

This article was from a year ago. Does anyone know if they actually passed it and if it's still in place?. I called the reporter that did the story and he would be interested in doing that another story about people that fly them for a hobby. He told me to get a hold of him if we all get together sometime.

 

[brad90631]

"WE THE PEOPLE" need numerous aggressive reps.(Like Jesse Jackson) in all levels of government that stand up and make all sorts of noise, report to media etc. for the American Citizen, and their freedoms and rights. (or lack there of)
And theres no way if fought, charges would stick, but yeah, it's a hassle to deal with, court, time off work, maybe a lawyer etc. our government should reward any defendant financially and handsomely for bogus charges that cost us and the tax payers and government workers time and $. maybe then they'd follow the rules a little bit.
so where is the line? Can they ban tacos? Skateboards? long hair?
How about binoculars/telescopes? they can invade privacy. And their technology is far superior than even the best top of the line drone purchased or built by the public... why ain't nobody bitchin about invasion of privacy to them?

Oh, how I hate 'em... wuddy say we all go to St. Boni, and take over the skys, have a drone lollapalooza

And hell no I'm not takin my camera off, if they can tap my very expensive smartphones, track me by GPS, and god knows what else. leave my little plastic toy alone. f/n A-HOLES!!!

count me in. let them give us all tickets, and we can capture it all on video from the ground and air.

Just think 20 or 30 phantoms flying into the city. that would be a great picture.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Couple of points to make here. The rule cannot be upheld in a court of law. Second is that people are crazy. And third, never, ever, ever move into a community with an HOA unless you like being suffocated with rules, rules, and more rules. That is all.

 

[Visioneer]

... never, ever, ever move into a community with an HOA unless you like being suffocated with rules, rules, and more rules.

Need confirmation, this should be all one needs to know:

"Homeowners Associations provide services, regulate activities, levy assessments, and may, as delegated by the states legislature, impose fines. Unlike a municipal government, they are not subject to the constitutional constraints that public government must abide by. A homeowners' association can enforce its actions through the threat and levying of fines, and private legal action under civil law. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association)

 

[neveradayoff]

Not sure how I missed that this was a year old. A friend told me about it and I guess I never looked at the date.

Here is a link that includes the city resolution # 2013-8 and Ordinance # 115 9-9
http://blogs.mprnews.org/statewide/file ... facius.pdf

I am surprised I didn't get a ticket last year while flying my Blade mSRx in the park.

 

[LarryLeisure]

How high do you think this photo was taken at?

I'd say around 500-600 feet, gut thats guessing...I'm not flying with FPV...yet

 

[bobomet]

St. Boni ....isn't that in Michelle Bachmann territory?
If so, then I'm not at all surprised.
Just wait until they ban Birth Control ...

 

[Visioneer]

Not sure how I missed that this was a year old. A friend told me about it and I guess I never looked at the date.

Here is a link that includes the city resolution # 2013-8 and Ordinance # 115 9-9
http://blogs.mprnews.org/statewide/file ... facius.pdf

I am surprised I didn't get a ticket last year while flying my Blade mSRx in the park.

Actually that's probably not all that surprising. Unless someone makes a complaint, a lot of laws are not enforced. Don't know about St. Boni, but our smaller town LEOs don't go looking for minor violations to cite - no harm, no foul. On the other hand if there's a complaint where a law is being violated, they've no choice other than to act (depending on the situation, may not mean a citation if the violator just stops and agrees to keep it that way). Our chief's perspective is that what most folks really want is simply to stop the "bad" behavior. If that can be accomplished without a citation (assuming no harm that requires fixing has been done), a citation serves no real purpose.

 

[EMCSQUAR]

If St Boni ever did issue a ticket or try to enforce that, that ordinance is so vague and has so many holes in it they spend an entire years budget in court. They first have to define - DRONE. Does that include the helium filled blimps you can buy at hobby shops and fly a camera on that? Exhibit A: march into court with a Hubsan X show them that.... As I said I wouldn't fly at St Boni unless we held Phantom Palooza there - I don't want to upset their paranoia party.

 

[Visioneer]

Here is a link that includes the city resolution # 2013-8 and Ordinance # 115 9-9
http://blogs.mprnews.org/statewide/file ... facius.pdf

I imagine our attorney friend would find more holes in this than in a slice of swiss cheese (oh wait, you're in MN not WI), but I expect he wouldn't need to go beyond the notion that it's all pretty much pre-empted by Federal jurisdiction.

The item that really stuck out to me as indefensible is their use of the term "City airspace". They didn't define what that term meant and there is no universal definition, certainly not a legally tested one - there's no such thing.

Sadly, though, they could cite you under this law and then you'd be stuck with defending yourself in court (not recommended without a lawyer - maybe you could find one that just gets a kick out of negating bad laws).

 

[Visioneer]

They first have to define - DRONE.

Actually, they did do that. It's in their ordinance. Though that's almost the only thing they did right.

 

[EMCSQUAR]

Here is a link that includes the city resolution # 2013-8 and Ordinance # 115 9-9
http://blogs.mprnews.org/statewide/file ... facius.pdf

I imagine our attorney friend would find more holes in this than in a slice of swiss cheese (oh wait, you're in MN not WI), but I expect he wouldn't need to go beyond the notion that it's all pretty much pre-empted by Federal jurisdiction.

The item that really stuck out to me as indefensible is their use of the term "City airspace". They didn't define what that term meant and there is no universal definition, certainly not a legally tested one - there's no such thing.

Sadly, though, they could cite you under this law and then you'd be stuck with defending yourself in court (not recommended without a lawyer - maybe you could find one that just gets a kick out of negating bad laws).

We have a couple of good lawyers in Minnesota - they defended the 'flying beer commercial" - they'ld love this. "Your honor our airspace is this invisble line that extends upwards from our city limits, just picture it in your mind ... we own that" lol

 

[Visioneer]

"Your honor our airspace is this invisble line that extends upwards from our city limits, just picture it in your mind ... we own that" lol

His honor would undoubtedly reply, "That's nice, but it's not in your law and it's too vague to be enforceable as written. Dismissed. Please pay the clerk on your way out the door."

Frankly the law is just a bluff. They (probably) know they don't have a winning hand and they're counting on the fact that the other players won't ante up to stay in the game until they have to show all their cards.

 

[EMCSQUAR]

I'm going to do an autonomous flight over St Boni and will be as follows:

Home Point -> St Boni Wine & Spirits
Point A - Mayors house - hover and turn west
Point B - City Hall - hover and turn - north
Point C thru F - slow 4 pt perimeter cruise of St Boni borders
End point - Return to Home (St Boni Wine & Spirits)

Estimated flight time 9mins 53 secs

 

[LuvMyTJ]

I forgot to thank you for this spy pic. I can see why they banned drones there... I am looking in all those windows with ease! I can't believe what that one guy is doing! :lol:
I always laugh when I hear the "it's spying on me from 400 feet" defense.