Amazon wants to bring drone delivery to the Treasure Valley: What to know
The skies of the Treasure Valley could get a lot busier. Amazon has applied to the city of Nampa for permission to build a drone delivery hub at its fulfillment center at 5319 E. Franklin Road, a proposal that would put package-carrying drones over parts of Nampa, Meridian, Middleton, Star and portions of Kuna and Boise.
The company is asking the city for a conditional use permit to build what it calls a Prime Air Drone Delivery Center — a fenced section of the fulfillment center’s parking lot that would house launch pads, an operations building, drone storage and a battery charging system, according to documents filed with Nampa’s Planning and Zoning Commission. The addition would consume about 21,000 square feet and eliminate 114 parking spaces on the campus.
The Nampa Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to take up the application May 26. Amazon would also need separate Federal Aviation Administration approval before any drones could fly. Because of this, Amazon hasn’t committed to a start date for the drone delivery service in the Treasure Valley, according to reporting by KIVI-TV.
From any hub, Amazon says its delivery drones would serve customers within a 7.5-mile radius — an area of roughly 170 square miles, according to the company’s website. The company says deliveries would run daily during civil twilight hours, from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset, weather permitting.
Amazon has been working to expand Prime Air since founder Jeff Bezos first floated the concept on national television in 2013.
According to federal aviation records, the company’s MK30 drones have been involved in about a dozen crashes in the last five years, including a recent crash in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, Texas, where an MK30 struck the side of an apartment building and fell to the ground. No injuries were reported, but the incident drew scrutiny from aviation safety groups and prompted Amazon to modify how the drones ascend over residential areas at that location.
The Richardson crash was not isolated. Federal records show the MK30 also clipped an internet cable during operations in Waco, Texas, in November, and two MK30 drones struck the same construction crane in Tolleson, Arizona, in October — within minutes of each other. No serious injuries have been reported in any of the incidents, but the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has cited the pattern as grounds for the FAA to slow its expansion of commercial drone rules.
This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 3:10 PM.