St. Petersburg, FL Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

F requires that for each tree removed that drops the site below the zoning district's minimum required tree standard, the owner plant one shade tree on the same property. Where planting is not reasonably possible, POD may approve a payment in lieu of $500 per tree, deposited in the City's environmental enhancement fund and used for landscaping on public property or right-of-way. 6, layers on mandatory mitigation for illegal removals: replacement trees must equal, at minimum, the number needed to meet the chapter's tree requirements and be sized to match the total estimated diameter-at-breast-height of the largest tree illegally removed (item 3).

An owner may instead pay the City the trees' value as computed under the Trunk Formula Method published by the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers (item 4), or combine cash and replanting so the total value meets or exceeds the minimum penalty (item 5). 7: a relocated tree counts toward the minimum tree requirement at its pre-move size, but if it does not survive it must be replaced with a like number of trees within 90 days. 6 conviction fine of $500, separate from the replacement or mitigation obligation, and a second after-the-fact permit is barred for a person or site cited again within five years of a prior after-the-fact permit.