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The vote comes amid Amazon’s proposal to expand Prime Air Delivery Service to the area.
As Dan Kline walked his dog this week — his favorite time of year — he imagined what life would be like if Amazon’s bid for delivery drones in Westborough came to fruition.
“I probably would have already seen five or six of them right now,” Kline said to Boston.com.
Kline is a member of the 11-person steering committee for Mass Blue Skies, an organization formed roughly a month ago among Westborough neighbors who want to keep the delivery drones grounded.
Following weeks of outreach, residents overwhelmingly voted in support of a bylaw restricting the use of commercial drones in Westborough, a Worcester County town of around 22,000 residents, during Monday’s special town meeting.
“Until they fly, we got a chance,” Kline said. “Once they start flying, like anything in history, it’s hard to take it down once it’s going. If you can stop it from going, you have a chance to at least put some fences around it.”
The bylaw, which passed 510-13, comes after Amazon announced plans to roll out drone delivery services from the company’s 64 Otis St. facility. It would be the company’s first Prime Air Delivery Service location in New England.
While airspace is governed by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Westborough bylaw would regulate ground-based activity, essentially prohibiting commercial drones from taking off or landing in town.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
Amazon’s plan for drones
Amazon brought the proposal for drone delivery to the Westborough Select Board in mid-August before the proposal moved to a planning board meeting on Sept. 15.
The drones, which measure roughly 5 feet by 5 feet, could carry packages to locations within a 7.5-mile radius. This would also bring the service to neighboring towns like Northborough, Shrewsbury, most of Grafton and Southborough, and parts of Worcester.
The drones could only carry packages weighing five pounds or less, which Amazon said accounts for 60 percent of customers’ most frequent purchases. Drone deliveries are typically completed within an hour of a customer pressing “purchase,” according to Amazon.
The company hopes to make 1,000 deliveries a day from the facility.
An Amazon spokesperson admitted the devices have cameras, but they are used for navigation and collision avoidance. The cameras are not live, and all image data is encrypted, a spokesperson said during the September meeting.
The drones reach a maximum of 68 decibels when delivering a package, which is quieter than a delivery truck idling at the curb, the spokesperson said. While the drones fly overhead, they are comparable to a window fan on a low setting while flying, they said.
The Westborough proposal comes as Amazon plans a vast expansion of its drone program. The company already operates in the metro areas of Detroit, Phoenix, Houston, Baton Rouge, and Tampa. Amazon is planning to expand to nearly 500 cities by the end of the year, including Chicago, Cleveland, and Atlanta.
Residents’ concerns
Residents raised concerns about the noise and sight of the devices flying overhead, a lack of privacy from the device’s cameras, and the potential impact of the drones on home values. Kline said sentiment opposing the drones is near-unanimous in town.
In an online survey, 93 percent of respondents in Westborough opposed the commercial drones, with 94 percent saying they wouldn’t use the delivery service.
“We don’t want to see [the town] turned on its head by accepting a very bad idea that will irreversibly change this town for the worse,” said Rod Jané, a member of Mass Blue Skies, during the special town meeting. “We are the stewards of the town’s character, and we want to turn it over to the next generation in better shape than we found it.”
While Kline is opposed to any commercial drone flights, he’s worried about the potential to upscale these services. It may be five pound items today, he said, but then it’ll be 10, 15, 20. All of a sudden, delivery trucks are gone and drones buzzing through the sky are the default delivery method, he said.
“It’s one logo today, every logo tomorrow. It just happens to be Amazon,” Kline said. “But this is really a discussion about what do we want New England to look like.”
Overall, residents simply don’t want to deal with seeing drones constantly flying overhead, they said. As examples, Jané pointed to the views of diners enjoying a drink at a brewery across the street from the facility or an apartment building down the street.
Environmental study
Federal, state, and local lawmakers have raised concerns that Amazon did not conduct a site-specific environmental survey prior to the proposal. According to a July decision from the FAA, drone delivery companies can rely on a nationwide environmental review.
Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Reps. Jim McGovern and Lori Trahan penned letters to Amazon and the FAA asking for an environmental assessment of the Westborough site before launching.
On Monday, 16 state legislators wrote a letter asking Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, and Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell to establish a task force on the commonwealth’s regulation of commercial delivery drones. Further, the letter asks Healey to place a moratorium on the delivery drones until the review is complete.
“Our window to regulate drone delivery services is closing – I’m hopeful that the Governor will recognize the urgency of this issue and create a task force to review how our laws apply to this technology and make recommendations on common-sense regulations to protect our communities,” said state Sen. Michael Moore in a statement.
What the Westborough drones bylaw does
The bylaw that passed in Westborough Monday would prohibit the establishment of a launch pad or drop zone for commercial-use drones in town. There is still leeway for drones to involved in land surveys, real estate, lawful newsgathering, photography, and emergency response.
The bylaw will go into effect pending approval from the attorney general and Massachusetts Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division.
The town followed in the footsteps of North Reading, which established regulations on drone use in 2017.
The next step for residents is a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting about the drone delivery service, which is scheduled for Nov. 2.
“We’ve done everything we can that we think we can do and take our best shot at this,” Kline said to Boston.com. “We’re in the battle in Westborough. There’s a war that’s going to come after this.”
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