Tallahassee, FL Landscaping Rules: Artificial Turf (2026)

Section 5-85 sets the city's landscaping and urban forest standards for new development and redevelopment, and subsection (m) lists the material standards that apply to every required landscape area and established urban forest area on a permitted site. Item (m)(10) is a flat prohibition: no visible plastic surface covers or synthetic plant material shall be used. That sits alongside related planting-quality rules in the same subsection, including a requirement that plants be Florida No. 1 grade or better and hardy for the North Florida region, and a ban on plants prohibited by the state department of environmental protection under (m)(3).

The reach of the turf ban tracks the reach of Sec. 5-85 itself. Under the exemptions in Sec. 5-85(b)(1), individually owned mobile homes, one detached single-family dwelling, a two-family dwelling, a triplex, a single-family attached building of no more than two units, and bona fide agricultural uses are exempt from the section's landscaping requirements entirely, so a homeowner replacing a residential front lawn is not reached by (m)(10). The rule bites on sites that must file a landscape plan with an environmental management permit application, such as commercial developments, multifamily projects above the exempted unit counts, and residential subdivisions with gross densities above four units per acre, all of which must meet the minimum urban forest and landscaping percentages in Sec. 5-85(d) using living plant material rather than turf.