Drone Coordination Office

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names, numbers and details may be misheard.

What: A proposed city drone coordination office, renamed from "office of air and space management" because the FAA, not the city, manages airspace. It would be a contact point for residents' questions and complaints about drones, including future commercial delivery drones.
Where it stands: committee feedback for a study session scheduled for November 10, 2026. No staffing request in the budget.
Next: study session on 2026-11-10.

Chief Lowe described an ombuds-style function: help residents file FAA complaints and coordinate with delivery companies. He said commercial drone delivery will arrive in Redmond regardless of zoning decisions.
The police department would run it in the first year using its existing drone-as-first-responder program; staffing needs would be revisited in year two or three.
Low-altitude radar is a separate need; he said the city is pursuing a congressionally directed spending request for the hardware and would return to the council for ongoing software costs. He acknowledged confusion over a related line in the Business Technology Investment Program (BTIP).

Forsythe: explore a public lookup similar to the PulsePoint app so residents can see which drones are overhead.
Kritzer: cost breakdown (what the possible federal money covers versus ongoing costs), how the joint effort with neighboring cities was developed, and clarity on data collected and whether any camera footage is involved.
Parsi: community concern about placing the program in the police department, and whether this is the right use of public money versus a nonprofit or private provider; she would prefer to see it later since it is not in the budget.
Nuevacamina: acknowledge that the platform is now part of Axon and explain how lessons from the earlier Flock concerns will be applied to data sharing.
Prakriya (presiding): options for which level of government should run this (county, regional partnership or state), since the city lacks authority to regulate drones.

At the Finance, Administration, and Communications committee, Stuart said council leadership had been told the airspace management office would not appear in the current budget, yet it is in the technology program; Soni noted money and time were already spent but it is not shown as funded. Prakriya said the item was on his committee's agenda for October 20, the following week. Parsi raised the foreign-made drone claim; see Business Technology Investment Program (BTIP).

About 12 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-20 - Committee of the Whole	12

2026-10-20 - Committee of the Whole — Chief outlined the concept; councilmembers listed questions for the November 10 study session.
2026-10-13 - Committee of the Whole — Raised during the technology program review: unfunded airspace management line, drone platform origin claim answered by the police chief.
2026-11-10 - City Council Study Session Meeting - Scheduled study session: low-altitude radar and the Office of Airspace Management.
See also Commercial Drone Zoning Code.