Clay County, FL Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

5 requires at least ten percent of a developed nonresidential site's total area to be landscaped, split between right-of-way screening, buffers from adjacent properties, and internal parking-lot planting, under Sec. 5-54. To make sure that ten percent is real, living landscaping rather than a substitute, Sec. 5-53(4)h states synthetic or artificial turf 'shall not be used in lieu of plant requirements,' and Sec. 5-53(4)i extends the same bar to synthetic trees, shrubs, ground covers, and vines. Plant material that is used must instead meet the article's living-plant standards: Florida No.

1 grade or better, minimum sizes at planting (eighteen-inch shrubs, thirty-inch vines after a year, six-foot trees with species-specific crown spread and trunk clearance), and installation in a planting area free of debris with irrigation or a ready water supply under Sec. 5-53(2) and (3). The rule applies to the paved ground-surface areas of nonresidential development, and to residential development inside the Branan Field Corridor and Greater Lake Asbury District or with parking over 4,500 square feet, all within the unincorporated county per Sec. 5-51.

A property owner who installs artificial turf anywhere else on the lot, such as a residential backyard outside the article's reach, is not touched by this section; the ban only applies when someone tries to count synthetic material against the required landscaping percentage.