By Mark Kirchmeier
The high-pitch mechanical sound of hovering drones could be coming soon to your neighborhood .
Amazon Prime has announced plans to initiate drone delivery throughout Portland in early 2027 from its facility at 1001 N. Schmeer Road just north of Kenton. The goal is to have drones deliver items weighing five pounds or less within one hour to area customers’ homes.
“It’s very concerning this is even being allowed to happen,” said longtime Kenton leader Terrence Moses. “This will be disruptive to people’s privacy, the noise that may come from these drones, may have an impact on one’s rest or quite time, and could be triggering to veterans suffering from PTSD, he said.
The company has not released details of their proposed drone delivery flights over Portland neighborhoods, but the experience of one Texas city is an example of what might come.
Amazon started drone deliveries earlier this year in suburban Dallas where drones, with six blue arms and whirling propellers, typically fly over neighborhoods at about 150 to 170 feet. That is low enough for people to hear inside their homes. The sound gets louder as drones descend to drop packages with a retractable cable on lawns and porches. Some residents report seeing more than 50 drones every day, The New York Times reports.
The proposed Amazon service evoked worried reactions from several North Portland residents concerned about noise, privacy and safety.
Victor Vencill said that the sky above his Peninsula Park neighborhood is restricted to Portland International Airport traffic. The tall conifers near the park could make it chaotic for drones to fly, he said.
Piedmont resident Fred Neal lives less than a mile south of the Amazon facility. He describes himself as an occasional Amazon shopper “who’d rather have an actual human making deliveries. They’re getting paid a and contribute to the economy. Drones do nothing of the sort. What peace and quiet I can derive from my garden does not need machine-generated interruption” Neal said.
Drones versus birds?
“We’re absolutely following this,” said Joe Liebezeit, state conservation Director for the Oregon Bird Alliance.
The science on drones is growing on how they can negatively affect wildlife, he said. Liebezeit isn’t familiar with any details of Amazon’s plans but is concerned that there are several natural areas and city parks near the proposed drone-launching facility. Drone noise can disturb bird habit enough to threaten some songbirds’ survival, he said.
Shelby Lawson, an Oregon State University wildlife biologist who studies how predators affect nesting red-wing blackbirds, says it’s easy for blackbirds and other birds to perceive the shadow a drone creates as a threat.
“If they think a drone is a hawk, they might be inclined to opt for self-preservation and flee the nest, putting their eggs at risk from another predator, like a jay or squirrel, that they could fight off if they were there,” said Lawson in a recent Columbia Insight wildlife publication
Amazon has filed a pre-application conference request with the City of Portland’s permitting bureau showing that the retail giant proposes to build out a Prime Air Drone Delivery Center at its N. Schmeer facility, according to the Portland Business Journal.
Amazon spokesperson Farah Jad told the newspaper that customer reaction to drone service has been overwhelmingly positive. Public records filed in August also show Amazon leased two warehouse spaces for delivery services at 2405 N. Albina Ave., and at 4444 S.E. 27th Ave.
[Read more news on the Amazon drone delivery issue in October at NorthPeninsulaReview.com Reach Mark Kirchmeier at NPReviewmk@gmail.com]