Schaumburg, IL Drone Rules: Park Drone Restrictions (2026)

Schaumburg's Village Code devotes Chapter 108, "Operation of Drones," to unmanned aircraft rules. 01 defines a DRONE as "any aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator" and defines VILLAGE PROPERTY broadly: any real property the village owns and intends for recreational or conservation use, expressly listing parks, playgrounds, aquatic facilities, wildlife areas and other recreational facilities. 02 bars operating a drone within 100 feet of the perimeter of any such property, village-wide, with no permit or waiver process open to residents. 03 allows only two exceptions, both reserved for the village itself: a drone the village operates or authorizes to monitor or document a special event, and any drone used for law enforcement.

There is no exception for a resident who wants to photograph a park or fly recreationally near a playground. 99, the code's general penalty provision, imposes, which runs from $100 to $50,000 with each day of a continuing violation counted as a separate offense. This is not Schaumburg's first attempt at regulating drones: an editor's note to the now-repealed Chapter 109A records that the village had an earlier "Operation of Drones" chapter, enacted by Ordinance 15-070 on July 28, 2015, and repealed by Ordinance 18-103 on September 11, 2018.

The current chapter was adopted years later as Ordinance 25-057 on May 27, 2025. As a home-rule municipality under Article VII of the Illinois Constitution, Schaumburg can regulate proximity to its own property even where the FAA controls navigable airspace generally; the ordinance targets the ground-level buffer around village land, not flight itself.