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

Section 114-106(b) of the Land Development Code allows a property owner to replace turf grass or sod areas with artificial turf or a native plant bed and receive a credit of three fewer required shrubs against the landscaping standards set out in Section 114-100. The credit sits inside Article IV's broader landscape incentive framework, which is designed to increase water conservation, biological diversity, and sustainable landscaping, and unlike the butterfly-garden credit in subsection (a), subsection (b) does not write in a separate biologist sign-off requirement of its own.

The substitution still has to be reflected on the landscaping plan required under Section 114-108, since that plan must show the name, location, quantity, size and type of all proposed vegetation and hardscape, and the calculation chart on that plan is what verifies the shrub count reduction is being applied correctly. The artificial turf option works alongside the county's broader push for water conservation: Section 114-46 already directs new development to plant native vegetation specifically to reduce potable water use for landscape watering, and turf replacement under Section 114-106(b) advances the same goal by cutting the area that would otherwise need irrigation, mowing, or fertilizer.

Because the credit applies against required shrubs rather than required trees, it cannot be used to eliminate canopy or understory tree obligations elsewhere in Section 114-100, only to reduce the shrub count tied to parking lot and general landscaping requirements.