Gilbert, AZ Drone Rules: Park Drone Restrictions (2026)

Chapter 46, Article I sets up a reservation permit system administered by the parks and recreation director for organized team practices, exclusive facility use, large equipment or amplified sound setups, and other scheduled activities in a town recreation facility or riparian preserve (§ 46-2). Once an area is reserved, § 46-4 makes it unlawful to interfere with that reserved use without the permittee's consent, and defines "interfere" to specifically include operating a drone, a radio-controlled model plane, or a model car, or throwing a frisbee, within 50 feet of the reserved area's boundary.

The same subsection also bars a group of ten or more people from congregating within that 50-foot buffer for a cumulative 15 minutes or longer. Outside a permitted reservation, § 46-3 lets the parks and recreation director post general time limits and first-come, first-served rules for facility use, but neither section imposes a town-wide ban on flying a drone in an unreserved area of a park. A drone operator who strays inside the 50-foot buffer around an active reservation, say, a youth soccer practice with its own permit, is interfering under the ordinance regardless of intent, and a park ranger or authorized town employee can act on the violation.

Because the prohibition is tied to the reservation boundary rather than the park boundary, the practical effect is that drone use is fine in open, unreserved park space but off-limits near any permitted activity.