Melbourne, FL Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Sec. 272(a)(1) bars any person from cutting down, destroying, removing, moving, or otherwise damaging a tree anywhere in the city without a permit, though canopy trimming up to 20 percent is exempt from that requirement. S. Fish and Wildlife Service approval under Sec. 272(a)(2). Subsection (b) exempts several categories from the permit entirely: trees at licensed nurseries, trees legally required to be removed, trees no longer viable or endangering structures or utilities, and any tree on a lot with an existing one-, two-, or three-family dwelling; the city manager can also waive the requirement temporarily during a declared emergency like an approaching hurricane.

Application requirements scale with the project: a residential lot or small non-residential site submits a scaled sketch showing tree types and locations, while larger sites of an acre or more must submit a certified tree survey overlaid on the site plan, and projects of ten acres or more may use a sampling method covering at least 10 percent of the site across a minimum of three sample areas. Sec. 272(f) requires protective barriers around preserved trees during construction, built of two-by-two posts linked with fencing material and kept at the tree's drip line.

If a tree is illegally removed, Sec. 272(h) lets the code compliance division cite the owner and the person who removed it, treats each day of noncompliance as a separate offense, and requires the owner to plant a same-type replacement of equal cumulative trunk diameter and at least 12 feet tall before any certificate of occupancy issues.