07/23/2025
I had some time this morning and thought, I haven’t put the drone up in a while. I went downtown to make an aerial park photo. I checked the Binns Park regulations (see next slide) and it had no regulation against drones. So up I went. Snapped some photos, and of course my battery was low. Retuned the drone to home and as I was packing up, I saw a Schaad Security employee walking towards me.
He opened with “this is a government building” (pointing to the Lanc Co Government Center behind us). I replied “cool! This is a public park.” He then proceeded to say that because the building behind me was a government building, I was not able to fly the drone. I told him that the park that we were both standing in has no rule against flying a drone. When that didn’t work, he said that 101NQ owners don’t want people flying a drone near their building stating that they don’t want people looking into the windows. I told him again, that isn’t a law, and also I’m not flying the drone up to windows to surveil someone in a private place.
I then continued to educate him on lawful drone flying and his concern was for any excuse he could find to tell me what I can’t do. I asked who he was working for and he said on behalf of the Downtown Investment District.
We had a very nice and respectable discussion about what he said I can’t do and I explained why that isn’t a law restricting my flight. He mentioned that since my drone had a camera, I couldn’t fly it in the park. I then had to explain that in public, there is no expectation of privacy. Also, that Lancaster was once the most surveilled city per capita. So all of these buildings he was concerned for are being monitored 24/7 and everyone in these parks, are at anytime on MULTIPLE CAMERAS from the Lancaster Safety Coalition. He mentioned the owners still have to rent out 15 more units to lease and they wanted to restrict drones in the park for the privacy of their tenants. He joked he can’t smoke his cigar near either Binns Park or Ewell Plaza.
We talked a bit more about Lancaster and he said “I appreciate the honest conversation” and we bumped fists and kept on with our days.
***continued in comments***
