Port Orange, FL Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

Port Orange's ban on invasive landscaping sits in Chapter 13 of the Land Development Code, the chapter governing landscaping and buffers, inside Section 6's rules on landscape materials. Subsection (b)(8) works by cross-reference rather than naming species in the code text itself: it prohibits whatever species the city's separately adopted landscape materials resolution identifies as prohibited for their aggressive, invasive nature, and that same resolution supplies the approved native and drought-tolerant species lists Section 6(a) requires for 75 percent of a site's shade trees and plantings. Layered on top of the local resolution is a second, independent bar pulled straight from state rule: no species on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's own prohibited list may appear in any landscape design, regardless of what the city resolution says.

This prohibition reaches every landscape plan the community development department reviews, from commercial site plans and subdivisions down to the minimum tree and shrub counts Section 5.5 sets for single-family and two-family lots, which range from one shade tree per 2,500 square feet of lot area plus eight shrubs on the smallest lots, up to 20 shrubs on lots over 20,000 square feet. A landscape plan proposing a species on either list fails development plan review outright; the only relief valve is the administrative variance procedure in Section 9, and that variance addresses dimensional hardship on a specific site, not substitution of a banned species for a compliant one.