Katy Approves a Six-Tower Zipline Drone Hub off the Katy Freeway - and Texas Law Says the Flights Themselves Are Not the City's to Regulate
The unanimous November 9 vote covers one parcel under 3 acres at 27240 Katy Freeway, six towers docking up to 36 aircraft over a 3-mile radius. What Katy could not vote on is everything residents asked about - schools, cameras, flight paths - because Government Code 423.009 reserves drone operations to the state and the FAA.
Katy is getting a drone port. The Katy City Council voted unanimously on Monday, November 9 to let Zipline build a drone charging station in the West Ten Business Park, behind the shopping center at 27240 Katy Freeway, just north of Interstate 10. The site is a little under three acres and will hold six towers, each docking up to six aircraft, serving a delivery radius of about three miles. Zipline told the council deliveries could start in as little as three months, and the city said on Tuesday that the approval covers that one parcel and nothing else - any future drone facility in Katy needs its own council vote.
The hardware timeline is longer than the headline. Zipline's next step is a city building permit, expected to take at least four to eight weeks, followed by eight to ten weeks of construction; development manager Jason Drews told the council the station will cost more than the company's usual $400,000 to $600,000 because it is larger than standard. The figures Zipline gave the council match its federal paperwork: an eight-pound payload, speeds up to 70 mph, and a cruise altitude the FAA's draft environmental assessment puts at about 330 feet. Zipline does not deliver tobacco, alcohol or pharmaceuticals. It would be the second drone operator over Katy - Wing has flown Walmart orders from two Supercenters on North Fry Road since January 15.
The questions council members asked most - flights near schools, and the cameras the aircraft carry - are the questions Texas law does not let Katy answer. Section 423.009 of the Texas Government Code bars a city from adopting or enforcing any measure regarding the operation of an unmanned aircraft, and voids one that tries. Council member Paula Taylor, who teaches at Katy High School, raised students ordering deliveries to campus; Zipline answered that it neither delivers to schools nor flies over public school property - a company policy, not an enforceable city rule. On safety, Katy Police Chief Bryon Woytek called the service 'as safe, if not safer, than delivered by a car', as reported from the meeting; the company's own record includes a September 4 incident in which one of its aircraft came down under its emergency parachute onto Highway 6 in Cypress, with nobody hurt and no cause published as of November 11.
The last gate is federal, and it is still open. Zipline's Houston-area expansion sits inside the FAA's five-metro Texas draft, which would amend its Part 135 operating authority to cover up to 65 Houston-area chargers, with Fort Bend, Harris and Waller counties in the study area. Public comments closed October 11, and as of November 11 the FAA's review page lists only the draft - no final decision. Katy has approved the ground; the airspace decision is still Washington's.
