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Schaumburg hovering on partial drone ban

Schaumburg trustees on Tuesday balked at approving a proposed ban on the use of drones over public property during special events, which they ultimately decided was too broad.

At a committee of the whole meeting next week, trustees will discuss narrowing the ordinance's definition of public property to include only village-owned land, leaving the school, park and library districts in Schaumburg to decide on their own drone policies.

"I think we're just a little bit ahead of ourselves and need a little more discussion," Trustee Tom Dailly said Tuesday night. "(The ordinance) may be a little overreaching for what we were trying to accomplish."

Schaumburg Village Manager Brian Townsend said attorneys also will look at whether there should be any changes to the ordinance's definition of a drone - which is, "Any aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator."

But the definition of public property is the only thing that is certain to be changed during next week's discussion, Townsend added.

The basic intent of the ordinance is to protect people from physical injury by drones during organized gatherings on village property such as Septemberfest and the Summer Breeze concert series on the municipal grounds, or Schaumburg Boomers baseball games and concerts at Boomers Stadium.

Because the stadium is co-owned by the village and the Schaumburg Park District, it would be affected by the intended ban, Townsend said.

When the village's transportation committee first discussed drones in early June, privacy issues caused by unwanted surveillance were among its concerns.

But upon further research, it was discovered that all of those particular concerns were already addressed by existing federal and state laws.

The concern about people being injured by a flying drone was the one issue that did not seem to be already covered by the law, Dailly said.

He cited the recent example of singer Enrique Iglesias injuring his hand by trying to grab a drone that was shooting video of his concert.

The committee of the whole meeting will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 21, at village hall, 101 Schaumburg Court.

Schaumburg to ban drones at special events

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