About 58 minutes into the Kirkwood, Mo. City Council meeting on Oct. 15, Mayor Liz Gibbons read Bill 11153 into the record and asked for a motion. The bill was a special use permit (SUP) for a Wing drone delivery nest at the Walmart at 1202 S. Kirkwood Rd. No council member made a motion. According to DroneXL's review of the meeting, the mayor read the next agenda item 40 seconds later. Five of the six council members were present.
That was the end of the bill. The city's Planning and Zoning Commission had recommended approval on Sept. 2, and its subcommittee report found the application met the city's zoning criteria. It still could not find a single council member willing to move it forward.
What Walmart and Wing Asked For
The application, filed as SUP-08-26 by BFA Engineering, asked to turn part of the Walmart parking lot into a drone operations site. The Webster-Kirkwood Times reported details after an Oct. 1 hearing. The nest would take up 30 parking spaces and hold 18 drones on three pads of six drones each. It would also include a large battery pack and a small storage building, all inside a 6-foot fence.
DroneXL said the ordinance would place the nest at least 250 feet from the storefront. Proposed operating hours were 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and deliveries would go to single-family homes only. The Times also reported a proposed rule against flying over electric substations.
The sources give different payload figures. DroneXL describes a 2.5-pound cap in the ordinance and reports that a resident noted the stated payload had crept from 2.5 to 2.75 pounds between meetings. The Times gave a proposed figure of about 2.75 pounds.
The Planners' Case
The Planning and Zoning subcommittee's Sept. 2 report found that the application met the criteria in Sections 25-20(e) and (f) of the zoning code, according to DroneXL. The full commission adopted it the same day, sending the application to council with 11 conditions attached. In zoning terms, the project had done what it was supposed to do.
Noise got the most technical attention. The report put the drones at about 43 decibels while cruising and about 63 dB while delivering, according to DroneXL. Wing's own figures at the Oct. 1 hearing were about 200 feet in cruise and about 62 dB while hovering to lower a package, DroneXL reported. DroneXL also noted that the decibel figures in the city's report are the applicant's, not a reading from a Kirkwood yard.
Some council members seemed open to the project at the Oct. 1 hearing. 'We're probably better off getting it right, rather than ceding it to some other city for us to live with,' Councilman Justin Arnold said, as quoted by the Webster-Kirkwood Times. He was noting that Kirkwood will likely be part of drone delivery coverage one way or another.
The Residents' Case
The opposition was one-sided by the time of the decisive meeting. DroneXL reports that every resident who spoke on Oct. 15 opposed the nest. KMOV First Alert 4 said residents raised concerns about noise and privacy.
The noise numbers help explain this. The report's 63 dB figure for deliveries and Wing's 62 dB figure for hovering roughly agree, though DroneXL says the report's numbers come from the applicant. The Times noted that council discussion compared the noise to a leaf blower, and DroneXL reported residents described it the same way. The debate was not really about which number was correct. It was about whether residents wanted any recurring drone noise over their homes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. A permit can meet the zoning code and still lose for that reason.
Did the Council Vote or Not?
Local outlets have described the decision three different ways.
- KMOX wrote that members stayed silent, according to DroneXL.
- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said members refused to cast a vote, also according to DroneXL.
- KMOV reported that the council 'unanimously voted to strike down' the permit on Thursday night.
DroneXL says the meeting video does not show a unanimous vote. It shows a request for a motion, no motion, and the council moving on. The practical result is the same either way: no permit. The record is different, though. DroneXL notes that no vote, findings or reasons were entered in the record. A failed motion or a recorded vote creates a documented decision on the merits. A bill that dies without a motion avoids any council member putting a position on the record. That matters to anyone, Walmart and Wing included, trying to figure out what a new application would have to change.
The Regional Picture
Kirkwood is one piece of a larger plan. The Times reported that City Planner Amy Lowry said the company's intention is to 'blanket the region' with drone coverage, and that Walmart is seeking hubs at about a dozen regional stores. Only one municipality, High Ridge, had granted approval so far, the Times said. KMOV described Kirkwood as one of a handful of metro municipalities where Walmart has explored drone delivery.
Wing's national goals are much larger. Wing's Catherine Lovett told council members the companies aim to have nearly 300 Walmarts offering drone delivery by the end of 2027, according to the Times and DroneXL. Growth on that scale would depend on approvals from city councils like Kirkwood's, one store parking lot at a time.
Why It Matters
Drone delivery has usually been described as a problem of aviation rules and aircraft reliability. Kirkwood shows another obstacle. Local land use approval is handled by elected councils, and a council can stop a project without arguing with the technical findings.
Wing and Walmart arrived with a commission recommendation, 11 conditions, a finding that the code criteria were met, and noise figures on paper. None of that turned into a motion. The lesson for operators is that meeting the code is the minimum for approval, not a guarantee of it. Approval depends on whether residents who show up to speak believe the benefits outweigh the costs to them.
Councilman Arnold's point about not ceding the decision to another city also cuts both ways. The Times noted that federal rules govern the drones themselves, while the council decides only the home base. If Walmart secures hubs in nearby municipalities to cover the region, those councils, not Kirkwood's, would set the conditions for them. Whether that happens depends on how the rest of Walmart's planned St. Louis hubs fare.
The reporting disagreement also matters. As DroneXL summarized, outlets described the same 40 seconds as silence, a refusal to vote, and a unanimous vote. Anyone following local drone permitting should check the meeting video, not just the headlines.
