Rockland County, NY Drone Rules: Park Drone Restrictions (2026)

The County's 2015 Drone Regulation Law (Ch. L. No. 2-2015) explains in its legislative findings that the chapter will limit drone use in the County to a person's own private property, another person's private property with consent, public property with the owning municipality's consent, and public parks 'unless such use is prohibited by the governmental entity having jurisdiction over such park, including but not limited to the Division of Environmental Resources of the County of Rockland' (Section 234-2E). The operative rule carries that intent into Section 234-4A(4), listing public parks, 'unless such use is prohibited by the governmental entity having jurisdiction over such property,' as one of the only lawful places to operate a drone, again naming the County's Division of Environmental Resources as an example of a jurisdiction that can impose its own ban.

Unlike private or other public property, where a drone operator needs affirmative permission from the owner or controlling agency before flying, a park is open to drones by default: the burden sits with the park's governing body to prohibit drone flights, whether through signage, park rules or another restriction, before that use becomes unlawful there. The chapter does not specify how a park entity must publish a prohibition, so an operator has to confirm the specific park's own rules, county or municipal, before flying, and any flight that ignores a posted or adopted park ban is treated as an unauthorized drone operation under the rest of Chapter 234.