Florida sets no statewide defensible-space mandate forcing homeowners to clear brush. In St. Johns County, clearing is driven by wildfire-prone Wildland-Urban Interface conditions and code rules requiring overgrown lots to be kept in order.
No Florida statute imposes a mandatory defensible-space clearance zone on private homeowners the way Western states do. St. Johns County sits in wildfire country — pine flatwoods and palmetto scrub run through Hastings, the rural western interior, and the edges of World Golf Village — so the Florida Forest Service urges residents to create defensible space by thinning brush and keeping vegetation back from structures. Clearing a large site by burning is a state-regulated land-clearing burn that requires Florida Forest Service authorization. Separately, county code enforcement requires lots to be kept free of overgrowth, junk, and debris under minimum property-maintenance standards.
Overgrown or debris-filled lots draw county code-enforcement notices, with Special Magistrate fines that can reach $1,000 per day for a first violation and up to $5,000 per day for repeat offenders.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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See how St. Augustine Beach's brush clearance rules stack up against other locations.
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