Monroe County, FL Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Section 114-106 of the Land Development Code creates landscape incentives aimed at increasing water conservation, biological diversity, and sustainable landscaping in the unincorporated Keys, and every incentive runs through approval by the County Biologist rather than applying automatically. Under subsection (a), a butterfly garden containing at least two larval host plants and two nectar source plants earns a reduction of one required understory tree, and the County Biologist can approve additional reductions where the garden includes plant species that benefit native butterfly species that are endangered, threatened, or otherwise protected.

The incentive sits on top of the baseline native-planting mandate in Section 114-102(f), which already requires 100 percent of the plant material used to satisfy landscaping requirements to be native species drawn from the list in Section 114-105 or certified native by the County Biologist; Section 114-106 rewards property owners who go beyond that floor with habitat-focused native plantings. Subsection (c) extends the same incentive logic to stormwater management: adding managed cisterns or rain barrels to a site's stormwater facilities, on top of the Low Impact Development strategies in Section 114-100, can reduce the site's stormwater retention requirement by the capacity of the plumbed, managed system, again subject to biologist and Planning Director review.

Because none of these credits apply automatically, an applicant has to document the qualifying native plantings on the landscape plan required under Section 114-108 and secure biologist sign-off before the reduction is reflected in the approved permit.