Chicopee, MA Drone Rules: Commercial Drones (2026)

Chapter 186 of the Chicopee Code was adopted by the City Council on 6-20-2017 as Ord. No. 17-30. Its purpose clause (§ 186-1) acknowledges that drones are flown by citizens for a variety of both recreational and business purposes, but the operative sections do not build a separate commercial regime. There is no business permit, no registration fee and no drone license anywhere in the chapter, and Chapter 188 (Licenses) contains no drone license either.

Scope comes first. Section 186-3 applies the chapter to drones and aircraft to the extent allowed pursuant to state and federal law, and limits it to drones and aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds that are flown by a private citizen below 400 feet. The chapter does not define private citizen or commercial operator, so it does not say how a company's fleet is treated under that scope clause.

Two requirements read on their face as covering every operator. Section 186-4(A) requires all aircraft and drones to comply with all regulations established by the Federal Aviation Administration. Section 186-4(B) requires that a drone or aircraft only take off and land on private property owned by the operator or where the landowner grants written permission. That permission must include the landowner's name and signature, the property address and the permissible dates and hours of operation, and it must be in the possession of the operator during the flight. A business crew launching from a client's lot therefore needs that document on site.

Section 186-4(C) opens by addressing operators who use a drone for nonbusiness or noncommercial purposes and then lists the detailed rules: registration, altitude, visual line of sight, no flight over crowds, daylight only, written permission to photograph people, and written authorization for City property. The code prints no matching list for business operators, and it does not say whether those rules are meant to bind them. The Chicopee Police Department enforces the whole chapter under § 186-5.