Redondo Beach, CA Drone Rules: Park Drone Restrictions (2026)

16 of the Parks and Recreation Facilities chapter, adopted by Ordinance No. 3051 effective June 18, 2010, regulates powered model aircraft and watercraft in City parks in two parts. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful to operate any motorized or remote-controlled model aircraft or glider in a park, but exempts aircraft or gliders weighing 10 ounces or less, a weight threshold that covers only the smallest toy-grade gliders and excludes the great majority of consumer camera drones, which typically weigh well over that limit. Subsection (b) is an absolute ban with no weight exception: it is unlawful to operate any motorized or remote-controlled boat or other craft in a park, covering model boats on park ponds and lagoons such as those at Seaside Lagoon.

The rule sits within the same chapter as the park hours, camping, skateboarding, and barbecue rules, all enforced by the Community Services Department and Redondo Beach Police under the general park-rules penalty structure. Because the section defines its trigger by weight and by location ("in any park") rather than by drone-specific terminology, a drone flown over a park from outside its boundary, or flown at 10 ounces or under within one, falls outside this particular prohibition; operators should also expect overlapping FAA airspace rules near the pier and beach that this local ordinance does not purport to address.