La Habra, CA Drone Rules: Event Drone Restrictions (2026)

Chapter 8.12, Unmanned Aircraft Systems, adopted by Ord. 1772 in 2016, regulates drone flights under the city's police power over zoning, land use, privacy, trespass and law enforcement operations. Section 8.12.020 defines a 'special event' broadly as any event, assembly or gathering held in a public park, open-air facility, private property or commercial/industrial facility that is open to the public and intended to attract people, expressly including sporting events, concerts, festivals and farmer's markets. Section 8.12.030(A)(2) makes it unlawful to deploy, launch or fly a drone within four hundred feet of any such special event unless the operator secures express permission from the 'person responsible for the special event,' defined as whoever owns or controls the private property hosting the event or, for a public-property event, whoever organized it.

The same subsection separately bans drone flights within four hundred feet of an active emergency response, and § 8.12.030(B) lets the city manager temporarily designate any area, including one around a planned special event, as a no-fly zone in the manager's sole discretion. The chapter states it is not intended to preempt FAA rules but to operate alongside them, so the four-hundred-foot event buffer applies on top of, not instead of, federal airspace restrictions.