Zipline's First Austin-Area Drone Hub Opens in Round Rock as City Admits It Has No Zoning Rule
Austin is a city in Travis County, Texas. Zipline's first Austin-area drone hub sits outside Round Rock's city limits — and the City of Round Rock says its zoning code has no rule for drone hubs at all. The hub at 3000 E. Palm Valley Blvd., in the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), opened deliveries on Friday, October 9, DroneXL reported October 11.
The city laid this out on an information page for residents: drone delivery hubs, where the aircraft are stored, launched, and recharged, are "not specifically addressed under the City's current zoning ordinances." The same page says the city is working with Zipline on a second hub inside city limits, behind the Renaissance Square shopping center on northbound Interstate 35, and will use that site to work out what the rules for future hubs should be. In other words, Round Rock chose to open first and legislate later — one hub running under an agreement with the company, the ordinance after it has watched the site run. By contrast, the Rowlett City Council, in the Dallas suburbs, voted 6 to 0 on May 20, 2025, to write drone hubs into its zoning code before Zipline opened there.
The Federal Aviation Administration's draft review of Zipline's Austin operations closed to public comment on Sunday, October 11. The city's page draws its authority at the property line: the FAA certifies the operator under Part 135 for delivery and controls airspace and flight paths, with state law backing that preemption. Round Rock keeps land use — where a hub can sit and whether it sits next to homes — but cannot regulate flights over neighborhoods. The city describes delivery-drone noise as similar to a small electric device or lawn equipment heard at a distance. Noise or nuisance complaints go to Zipline, safety concerns to the FAA; for privacy, the page points to Texas Government Code Chapter 423, which makes capturing images of people or private property for surveillance a Class C misdemeanor with civil penalties of up to $5,000 per incident for capture and $10,000 for distribution.
News 4 San Antonio reporter Brianna Perez counted 25 businesses on the Zipline app in Round Rock one day into service, in a report published October 10. Instill Coffee is among them, and co-owner Michelle Bell said the shop joined to help test something new in the city. Zach Hill, who leads community engagement for Zipline, told the station: "This is just the beginning, and this is our first site." The aircraft fly at up to 75 mph (121 km/h) at about 300 feet (91 meters), carry about 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms) per order, and the company says it has flown more than 135 million commercial miles without a serious injury (its Austin launch announcement puts the total above 140 million).
On October 8, a day before opening, Zipline demonstrated at Stony Point High School, one of four Round Rock ISD high schools teaching the district's Drone Aviation program — the others are Cedar Ridge, McNeil, and Round Rock High — where students can work toward the FAA Part 107 certificate. Zipline told KXAN the partnership with the district will bring classroom visits, career fairs, and facility tours, and could extend to the district's engineering and robotics programs.
(Compiled from DroneXL, October 11, 2026, with reporting from the City of Round Rock, KXAN, Community Impact, and News 4 San Antonio)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，Roksenhorn 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权
