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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAmazon launched a drone delivery program in Richardson after receiving city and FAA approval. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAmazon launched a drone delivery program in Richardson after receiving city and FAA approval. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Amazon<\/p>\n
Less than one year after Richardson approved an Amazon Prime drone delivery center, city leaders are rethinking their votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Amazon drone-delivery home base, located just south of the Methodist Richardson Medical Center, has fulfilled 13,000 online orders since opening. A majority of that traffic has been directed over one neighborhood due to a no-fly zone that covers the hospital, and the hundred-plus daily drone flights have begun to cause ire amongst neighbors.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Last December, the Observer reported on one Richardson resident\u2019s frustrations, <\/a>which had begun to mount after frequent drone deliveries over his home created nuisance noise. At the time, the neighbor speculated that because the program was relatively new, his neighbors had not yet begun to fuss about the \u201cheadache\u201d caused by the incessant buzzing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Three months later, the fuss has begun.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would challenge anyone who supported this measure to come spend an hour with me, just sitting in my backyard, trying to enjoy watching my children play in the pool. Bring a little note card with you, and every time you hear a drone, make a mark,\u201d said Brian Rowe, homeowners association president of a neighborhood that has been affected by the drone traffic, during a March 9 city council meeting. \u201cWe need to balance the needs of our citizens over and against the needs of corporations like Amazon, and we have yet to meet that balance here.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n Among the concerns raised at the meeting, which a representative from Amazon attended, were the noise caused by the drones, <\/a>the long hours during which the drones are permitted to operate, and privacy concerns about the potential surveillance. According to Sam Bailey, a manager with Amazon Prime Air\u2019s economic development efforts, the first complaints about the drone deliveries were raised by the Wood Creek Church on Dec. 16. A month later, the company began hearing pushback from neighborhood stakeholders.\u00a0<\/p>\n An Amazon Prime Air delivery drone crashed in Richardson, TX, on Wednesday after it apparently hit a building.<\/p>\n The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating, and in a statement to CBS News Amazon said that they “apologize for any inconvenience and are actively\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/teLrtRzcJn<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 CBS News (@CBSNews) February 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n The drones operate only within a 7.5-mile radius, Bailey told the council, and flight paths are limited by the hospital\u2019s no-fly zone mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration. The noise emitted by the drones is an issue that the company is \u201cconstantly looking at evolving,\u201d he said, but introducing a new model of drone is unlikely due to the various approval processes that would have to take place.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the feedback we\u2019ve heard from the communities [means] we do have some more work to do,\u201d Bailey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He added that the drones used to deliver Amazon Prime packages,<\/a> known as MK30 drones, are not equipped with license plate or facial-recognition data-collection cameras commonly associated with first-responder drones. Individuals who would like their home blurred in the company\u2019s image collection can request this from the company\u2019s customer service department, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI will never say that nothing can be hacked,\u201d said Bailey. \u201cBut we\u2019ve taken every measure to ensure that our operations are contained, and are only operated safely by Amazon and approved drone monitors from the [fulfillment center].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Bailey said the company has adopted several procedural changes since receiving community pushback, including raising the minimum altitude for drone flights and attempting to redraw flight paths so that drones en route to a delivery have time to reach a higher altitude before passing over residential areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, some Richardson officials appeared unconvinced by the representative\u2019s promise to be a good neighbor. Council member Dan Barrios said he first witnessed the drones while greeting voters at the polls at the beginning of March. He described the machine as loud enough to force a pause in conversation, and stated that he \u201ccan\u2019t imagine hearing that day after day,\u201d as some residents are now forced to.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Other officials suggested they were rethinking their partnership with Amazon Prime.<\/a> They warned that, if things did not improve, Richardson would serve as a warning to other cities looking to bring a drone fulfillment center to town.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf the vote that we had last year were held today, there\u2019s absolutely no way I\u2019d say yes,\u201d said Council member Joe Corcoran. \u201cI know that hindsight\u2019s 20\/20, and I can\u2019t go back in the past and change it, but it seems like lately I can\u2019t go anywhere without someone complaining to me about this decision, and rightfully so.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Corcoran added that the reality that has been established over the last few months isn\u2019t what \u201canyone had in mind\u201d when approving the service last summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n The delivery drones are permitted to operate between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and neighbors who live near the fulfillment site report hearing the machines multiple times an hour. While Bailey told the Richardson city council that the center is currently fulfilling only about 150 orders a day, an FAA approval assessment issued in August 2025<\/a> states that the agency would allow up to 1,000 deliveries a day from the center.\u00a0<\/p>\n The threat that Richardson\u2019s experience could warn other cities away from entering into agreements with the Amazon Prime drone delivery service is Richardson\u2019s primary leverage. At the end of the March 9 briefing, they wielded it, requesting that Amazon conduct an updated noise survey and further enshrine privacy protections for neighbors whose homes are within the delivery zone. While City Manager Don Magner stated that he \u201chas not heard anything from Amazon\u201d other than a willingness to \u201crefine, refine, refine,\u201d the program, Mayor Amir Omar suggested that a few small acts of goodwill<\/a> would go a long way in smoothing over relationships with the town.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI really would love it if you considered whether or not shaving an hour off [of the start and end times of operation] would somehow be so crushing a blow to this program to where it doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d Omar said. \u201cIt just sounds a bit insane that a drone is waking [residents] up, or at least flying overhead, at 7 a.m. I get that that\u2019s what you got approved, but if that is something that you would be willing to do, I think it\u2019s a great gesture of good faith.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t