Howard County, MD Drone Rules: Park Drone Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 208 of the Howard County Code, the general Regulation of Conduct provision for park property, addresses unmanned aircraft systems in a single, direct sentence: a person shall operate an unmanned aircraft system in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations. Rather than setting a separate County drone code, Howard County folds FAA airspace, altitude, and no-fly-zone rules straight into its park conduct ordinance, so a drone flight that would violate FAA Part 107 or recreational-flyer rules over County parkland is also a County code violation.

The provision sits among two dozen other park conduct rules in the same section, covering everything from smoking and vaping to indecent conduct, animal control, and noise, all enforced the same way. The County's own civil penalty table classifies a Sec. 208(l) violation as a Class C offense, matching the classification given to smoking and vaping violations in the same section. Because Sec. 205 separately requires a Director-issued permit for using an aircraft, including drones and other person-operated aircraft, on park property, a drone operator flying without a permit and outside FAA compliance can face exposure under both provisions at once.

The Department of Recreation and Parks enforces Title 19 park rules generally under Sec. 210, which allows civil citations, injunctive relief, and temporary bans from the specific park property where a violation occurred.