Belvedere, a city of 2,126 people on two islands in Richardson Bay, takes its final vote Monday, October 12, on the first drone delivery ordinance in Marin County. DroneXL has published a plain-language guide for Belvedere residents ahead of that vote: what is coming, who decides what, what the ordinance says section by section, and what a resident can still do before the meeting.
The guide exists because the argument in Belvedere has outgrown the facts. The council voted 3-2 on September 14 to give the rules a first reading, and the only split was over delivery hours. No delivery drone has carried a package to a Belvedere doorstep. No company has said one will. Wing said in March it would bring delivery to the Bay Area “in the coming months” and named the region again in June on a Walmart list for 2027, without naming a city either time.
The Guide Separates What Belvedere Controls From What the FAA Owns
The Federal Aviation Administration decides who flies, where, how high and how often. Belvedere decides what happens on the ground: where a drone may land or drop a package, whether a delivery facility is allowed, and in which zone. Chapter 8.34 regulates only the ground.
The ordinance says so in its own text. Section 8.34.010 states that the chapter “does not regulate drone flights,” and section 8.34.100 defers to federal law wherever the two meet. The guide walks through all ten sections of the staff report and draft ordinance: the consent rule for deliveries onto private property, the 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. window (11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday), the 20-deliveries-a-month line that turns a home into a facility, the conditional use permit any facility would need in the mixed-use zone, and the privacy and complaint sections.
It also explains, with the same reasoning as DroneXL’s How approval works page, why the city cannot do the things residents keep asking for. A federal court struck down Newton, Massachusetts’ altitude limit, overflight ban and local drone registration in 2017, and the guide lists which demands fall on that side of the line. Noise limits in the air, a drone-only curfew, a no-fly zone over a school: a council that writes them is writing a lawsuit. The hours in 8.34.030(D) mirror the city’s existing noise code for everyone, not drones alone, which is the version most likely to hold up.
Residents Get a Checklist, Their Representatives and an Anonymous Survey
The guide ends with a checklist for the days before the vote, the City Clerk’s route for written comment, Assemblymember Damon Connolly, Senator Mike McGuire, and a two-minute anonymous survey: your town, where you stand, whether you would use it, what worries you, what would change your mind.
The survey collects no name, email or address. A bot check, a one-time device token and a rate limit keep it to one response per person, and submitting again replaces your earlier answer. An optional free-text line goes to DroneXL and is never published. Results are public and update as answers come in, and they are a count of who answered, not a poll of the town. The questions reach past Belvedere on purpose: a drone base, if one ever comes, would sit in Mill Valley, Corte Madera, Larkspur or another town with the commercial space, and the aircraft would cross Tiburon and Belvedere on the way to a neighbor who ordered. Those neighbors are asked too.
Every claim in the guide traces to a document listed in its sources section. If something in it is wrong, there is a correction form at the bottom of the guide, and DroneXL will fix it the day it hears.
DroneXL’s Take
Belvedere did something I have rarely seen a town do this year. Richardson and Papillion found out about drone delivery after the operator had chosen a site, and both ended up telling residents to call Washington. Belvedere read the preemption map first, found the part it owns, and wrote rules for a drone that has not arrived. I think the council should pass the ordinance Monday, and I think the louder residents should read the guide before they speak, because half the objections I have seen are aimed at a power the city does not have. DroneXL is not against drone delivery. A defibrillator across the bay in four minutes is a flight worth any amount of noise. A toothpaste run at 9 p.m. has to earn it, and the people under it get a say. The guide is built so they can use it.
Source: City of Belvedere, City Council staff report and draft Chapter 8.34, Sept. 14, 2026, DroneXL Belvedere resident guide.
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
