510 to 13? Westborough Just Told Amazon's Drones to Keep It Moving.

Amazon called Westborough a "beacon of innovation." Westborough called a special town meeting.

Monday night, residents voted 510 to 13 for a bylaw that targets noise, nuisance and privacy from commercial drone deliveries, with fines attached. That's not a close vote. That's a town sending a message with the volume all the way up. Amazon wants Prime Air drones, about 5 feet by 5 feet, dropping packages in yards within an hour of an order, starting by the end of the year.

The best line came from resident Rod Jané: "To save 20 or 30 minutes to get your toothpaste or a bottle of Thousand Island dressing? It doesn't make sense." And the twist: Amazon already runs a fulfillment center and a robotics facility in town. Residents are fine with the warehouse. They just don't want the warehouse flying over the swing set.

Here's the catch. The FAA controls the sky, so the town is regulating what happens on the ground, and the attorney general has to sign off before any of it counts. State Sen. Michael Moore wants the Healey administration to set up a drone task force, and says Westborough could set the precedent for the state. Amazon says it's "aware" of the bylaw and still assessing its plans.

What we still don't know: whether the AG approves the bylaw, how the zoning board appeal goes, and whether the state ever gets that task force off the ground.