Solano County, CA Drone Rules: Park Drone Restrictions (2026)

The county's parks chapter treats drones the same way it treats other motorized model craft. Solano County Code Section 19-160, the list of prohibited acts within a county park, adds subdivision (aa): no person may operate a self-propelled, motor-driven unmanned aircraft system, or UAS, described in the code as also known as a drone, along with model aircraft, model boats, model automobiles, or other model craft, without a permit issued by the parks manager or a designee. The rule applies within any county park, meaning parks division property in the unincorporated county such as Lake Solano Park and Lynch Canyon, and it is written broadly enough to reach both hobbyist and camera drones since it does not distinguish by purpose, only by the act of operating the aircraft on parks-division land.

Section 19-160 sits in Chapter 19, Article I, which lists two dozen other prohibited park acts from open fires to firearms, and each carries the same enforcement structure: park rangers and the parks division administer the permit and can eject violators. The chapter's general appeal provision, used for permit denials under subdivisions (l) through (n), lets a denied applicant appeal to the director of resource management within ten days, and then to the board of supervisors within thirty days, though subdivision (aa) itself does not repeat that appeal language verbatim for drone permits specifically.

Because this rule is parks-specific, it does not reach drone flights over private agricultural land or the airspace above county roads outside parks, areas instead governed by FAA airspace rules and the county's separate Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan near Travis Air Force Base.