The Richardson City Council met March 9, 2026, with a busy agenda. I'll focus on just one topic: drones.
The council reviewed Amazon's drone operations at its STX8 fulfillment center on Research Dr. near Richardson Methodist Hospital (remember that, it'll come up later). Concerns about noise, privacy, and drone safety were addressed, with Amazon committing to ongoing community engagement, but no specific improvements.
Let's get to the bottom line here. What's going to be done about the dronepocalypse in Richardson? Amazon committed to consider unspecified improvements and continue community engagement. The meeting concluded with plans for further discussions and feedback sessions. The Amazon representative was articulate, informed, and, in one word, noncommittal. At most, under pressure from Council member Justice, he said he'd get back in two weeks with Amazon's responses to what they heard in Richardson. My guess is that he left Monday night feeling pretty good about Amazon's escape from this scrape with city government having made no concessions.
The commitment to get an answer to Justice in two weeks, weak as it was, was the only commitment the Amazon rep made all night. Still, Justice's questioning of the Amazon rep was the highlight in the council's questioning. She pressed him on his vague answers to questions about a drone making a "safe contingent landing" in Waco. Another about the reason why Amazon is reluctant to change flight routes. Is it because of FAA safety concerns about flying over highways, as he said at one point, or about the loss of efficiency by not flying direct routes, as he said at another point, or about the difficulty in programming drones to follow main roads, as he said at yet another point? (Justice said to that last one, "That's a little bit goofy to me.") Here's an example exchange.
Justice: "My understanding that we came here last time was you were initially asking 300 flights a day, but up to 1000. What were you approved for?"
Amazon rep: "This site, on average, flies between 150 to 250 flights per day. The approval of 1000 that is included in the environmental assessment that we do at the FAA, we are providing them the absolute maximum, which this site would not be able to hit based on it being 10,000 square feet and only having three paths and one divert path. So we wouldn't even be able to get even halfway there at the site daily." ("Halfway" would be 500, itself much higher than the 300 everyone talks about.)
Even the 300 flights per day mentioned in the original staff report was not a commitment by Amazon. It was an estimate by Amazon. Big difference. Justice is in a weak negotiating position. She knows it, which is why she said, "So my ask of Amazon, since we're asking you all to be good partners, is that if you were ever going to ramp up your activity, that all of these issues are addressed first, because again, a trash truck going by my house 120 times a day is going to sort of drive me a little bit nuts, and so I have great sympathy for my neighbors."
Judging by him mentioning it first, Council member Hutchenrider's first concern was defending the no-fly zone around the Methodist Hospital of Richardson, just north of Amazon's drone hub. Hutchenrider, who is president of the hospital, said, "The no fly zone was established because we have emergency helicopters flying in and out of the facility to deliver patients and in some cases, to transfer out. That was established by the FAA. That was not something that we requested, not something that the city requested, not something that Amazon requested. So that purely was an FAA action."
So, rightfully so, Hutchenrider has a privileged position in this debate. Does he empathize with the public's position? Again, Hutchenrider: "I golf every weekend at Canyon Creek. Drones consistently fly over. We can still talk. We can still hold conversations." An audible groan from the audience (not me) that followed that comment suggested what the public felt about the support being offered by Hutchenrider for their concerns.
Council member Joe Corcoran had a different approach: "I will say that if the June vote that we had last year were held today, there's absolutely no way I vote yes. And I know that hindsight is 20/20 and I can't go back and change it. But you know, it seems like lately I can't go anywhere without someone complaining to me about this decision, and rightfully so."
Kudos to Corcoran for owning up to a vote that's turned out to be widely unpopular. Since he brought it up, let's review exactly what the vote was. It was ZF 25-04 to amend the existing Planned Development (PD Ordinance 4362) to allow a commercial drone delivery hub as an accessory use. The application passed the city council by a 4-3 vote. Council members Hutchenrider, Dorian, Arefin, and Corcoran voted in favor of giving Amazon its drone delivery hub in Richardson. Mayor Omar and Council members Justice and Barrios voted against the future dronepocalypse. So although I give kudos to Corcoran for having regret for his vote, greater kudos are due the three council members who had the foresight and wisdom to vote no from the start.
City Manager Don Magner schooled the council on the consequences of their yes vote on ZF 25-04 in 2025. "I would tell you that the use has been authorized by a prior council action. It is a given right now for Amazon to use this and any additional consideration, I would suggest that we bring back the city attorney to have those discussions with you around what would constitute a taking in this matter."
Council member Dan Barrios is going to have to sharpen his questioning skills if he wins his Congressional race in November. Referring to a planned meeting by Amazon with the public on Tuesday morning, Barrios said, "I appreciate your willingness to stay and meet people before having to fly out of town, but it does feel a little bit like you gave a 'brush off,' or maybe, and I hate to use the term 'slap in the face' to the residents, it being so short notice, early in day, short in time." The Amazon representative ignored the criticism in responding, "If you have dates and times you would like me to be back out here to meet with residents during non-working hours, I'm more than happy to work with you on that." Point, Amazon.
Council member Arefin got deep into the weeds trying to engineer Amazon's business. "If you can take takeoff vertically, if you have to go certain angles, could you make all your take off go to the south, then make it turn and then when you go, like 225 feet high, then go other way."
And about noise pollution, Arefin asked, "Is there any way that you guys could change the sound instead of making some buzz?" This time, someone in the audience said, under their breath, "Maybe have the drones honk like geese. People love geese flying by." (Ok, I admit that audience retort came from me. My bad.)
Some of the council members don't understand their role in zoning cases. It's to decide whether a use is proper under the zoning ordinances. It's not a design review for engineering decisions.
Council member Dorian also turned the meeting into a design review. "So there's a lot of times the propellers are going so quick. I mean, you hear the buzzing noise as it travels over your home. So is that something you're looking into currently?" Guess what the answer was.
Dorian aided and abetted Amazon's escape without even a flesh wound. "This technology is inevitable. I mean, it's something that we are going to have to get used to." Dorian's "yes" vote on ZF 25-04 wasn't "inevitable." It was a choice. When faced with the same choice, three other members of the City Council chose "no." If Dorian had joined them, Amazon would have, in the words of the Amazon representative here Monday night, "we would have said, thank you very much, and we would have moved on." Instead we're doing a design review on the "buzzing" noise of drone propellers.
Mayor Amir Omar: "I'm going to try and focus on, I think only two elements here. I think your move to climbing to higher heights has been helpful."
After offering that rose, Mayor Omar follows it with a thorn. "What my focus on is more the concentrations. And I think that if you were out in your yard for four hours, or however long a round of golf takes, ... and you only, let's say, heard the drones three times, I think that's a dramatic difference than hearing the drone over that three hours fifteen times, or something to that effect, twenty times. And so I think those concentrations are really what are hurting the effort that you're trying to put out there." Mayor Omar demonstrates how to show he's heard his constituents' complaints and is sympathetic to them. Not that he had any solutions either, or at least solutions that don't amount to Amazon reducing the size of their operation.
In the end, Mayor Omar did request Amazon do just that—reduce the size of their operation: "The last thing I want to say and this is more of an ask than it is anything else. And I don't know how much of an impact this has on your business, but I really would love it if you considered whether or not shaving an hour off at the beginning and an hour off at the end of the day would somehow be so crushing a blow to this program, to where it doesn't make sense."
The Amazon reps response to that was, "Mayor, I appreciate the feedback on those items, and am happy to take that under advisement." So, just like Justice, Mayor Omar knows he's negotiating from a position of weakness. Maybe, just maybe, as "a great gesture of good faith," Amazon will throw a few chips Richardson's way. They hold all the cards.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
"City hall buzzes.
Above, the drones buzz louder.
Sky full of maybe."
—h/t ChatGPT
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