Palm Coast, FL Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

Chapter 24, Article II, Division 2 of the Palm Coast Code addresses erosion control for property adjoining a waterbody, defined at Sec. 24-76(a) to include fresh and salt water canals, ditches, lakes, marshes, rivers, swamps and swales in the city. Subsection (b) lists five specific violations: dumping vegetative material or yard clippings into a waterbody; allowing construction-site material to be deposited or to erode into a waterbody and failing to remove it within 15 days after notification of noncompliance; allowing hazards to project or hang into a waterbody; a contractor's failure to backfill a bulkhead within 30 days of construction or repair; and discharging human waste into a waterbody from shore or a watercraft.

Subsection (d) requires anyone constructing, remodeling or repairing a building or pool in the city to use Best Management Practices, designed to the state's 2007 Erosion and Sediment Control Designer and Reviewer Manual and the FDEP's 2008 Stormwater, Erosion, and Sedimentation Control Inspector's Manual, and shown on a Grading and Drainage Plan or separate Erosion Control Plan. The contractor or owner may choose among several approved methods on side and rear yards leading to a waterbody: leaving an undisturbed vegetated strip at least eight feet wide, installing a staked and maintained filter cloth screen across the lot line until the lot is sodded and landscaped, or using bales of straw or hay, unless the city directs otherwise.

Subsection (f) adds seawall- and bulkhead-specific timing: if building construction starts within 90 days, backfill must reach the top of the seawall with a swale at least five feet back to catch eroded material, and the site must be sodded on completion of final grade; if construction will not start within 90 days, the site must be left with minimal clearing and adequately sized erosion control devices until it is developed.