Ottawa County, MI Drone Rules: Recreational Drones (2026)

Section 400.3.1.16(a)(iii) of the Code of Ottawa County, adopted under the Parks and Recreation Commission's rulemaking authority (MCLA 46.11), states that no person while on Commission Park Property shall use or operate any remote-controlled airplane, helicopter, drone, car, boat, or similar device unless prior written permission is obtained from the Commission or its Agent. The same subsection separately requires written Commission permission before launching hot air balloons, parachutes or hang gliders. "Commission Park Property" means all lands, waters and property administered by the Ottawa County Parks and Recreation Commission as park areas, per § 400.3.1.3(b).

Violating any park rule, including the drone-permission requirement, is a municipal civil infraction under § 400.3.1.17 punishable by a fine of up to $100 plus the costs of prosecution, and the violator may also be expelled from Commission property. Ottawa County Sheriff's deputies and Commission agents or designees may issue civil infraction citations under § 400.3.1.18. Outside the parks rule, the Board's separate surveillance ordinance restricts drones more narrowly countywide: § 400.5.2.1 bans dropping any object, including via a drone, onto the secured grounds of the Ottawa County Jail or Juvenile Detention Facility, adopted after the Michigan Department of Corrections reported contraband dropped by drone onto prison grounds.

Section 400.5.2.2 bars using a drone on any County-owned property, including park property, in a manner that invades the privacy of or harasses another person or wildlife, defining harassment as a course of conduct that would annoy, threaten, intimidate, alarm or cause reasonable fear.