Ocala, FL Landscaping Rules: Tree Trimming (2026)

Under Sec. 58-31, an owner or occupant of private real property in the City of Ocala may not let shrubbery grow above 30 inches or let tree branches hang below ten feet, measured from the base of the shrub or tree, if doing so obstructs a driver's sight line at a traffic intersection. The measuring point is a legal stop position on a stop street or alley, or any street later designated a stop street, and the protected sight distance runs 250 feet in each direction down the through street the driver is trying to cross.

The rule also bars erecting or placing a fence, wall, hedge or other structure that creates the same obstruction. This is a vegetation-height and clear-sight-triangle rule rather than a general tree-trimming mandate: it only reaches shrubs, tree branches, fences, walls and hedges that block an intersection sightline, not routine street-tree canopy trimming elsewhere in the yard. Subsection (b) carves out two exemptions: utility poles, and any tree that already existed with a trunk diameter of four inches or more as of the date the underlying ordinance was enacted, so a mature legacy tree is not automatically in violation even if its canopy sits below ten feet.

The section traces to the 1961 and 1985 codes and cross-references chapter 66 (traffic and vehicles) and chapter 118 (trees, landscaping and other vegetation), reflecting that intersection visibility is enforced as a traffic-safety measure administered alongside the city's broader tree ordinance.