Melbourne, FL Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

Section 36-39 sets the maintenance requirements a mortgagee or local property manager must follow once a property has been registered under Melbourne's defaulted-mortgage registration program (Section 36-34 explains the purpose: limiting deteriorating, blighted properties tied to mortgages in default). Subsection (c) requires that yards on these properties be landscaped and maintained pursuant to the Code's standards, and its definition of 'landscaping' explicitly includes grass, ground covers, bushes, shrubs, hedges or similar plantings, decorative rock or bark, or artificial turf/sod designed specifically for residential, commercial or industrial installation.

The same sentence draws the line on what does not count: landscaping does not include weeds, gravel, broken concrete, asphalt or similar material. 'Maintenance' under the same subsection covers watering, irrigation, cutting and mowing of the required landscape and removal of trimmings, so a property manager choosing turf over live grass still has an upkeep duty tied to the material's condition, not just its installation. This is the only place in the Melbourne Code that defines artificial turf as an accepted landscaping material; the general zoning and property-maintenance provisions elsewhere in the Code do not separately address synthetic turf.

Failure of the mortgagee or property owner of record to properly maintain the property, turf included, is a Code violation that can draw a citation from the city's code compliance division, escalating to the code enforcement board or a special magistrate for a compliance finding.