Osceola County, FL Landscaping Rules: Tree Trimming (2026)

045 of the Florida Statutes, adopted in 2019 and amended in 2022, overrides any Osceola County ordinance, including provisions of the county's separate Land Development Code, that would otherwise require a homeowner to get a permit, pay a fee, submit an application, or replant before trimming or removing a hazardous tree on a single-family residential lot. The statute defines 'residential property' narrowly as a single-family, detached building on a lot actively used for single-family residential purposes, whether a conforming or a legally recognized nonconforming use.

The exemption isn't automatic: the owner needs 'documentation,' meaning an onsite risk assessment performed and signed by an International Society of Arboriculture-certified arborist or a Florida-licensed landscape architect, following the tree risk assessment procedures in the ISA's Best Management Practices - Tree Risk Assessment, Second Edition (2017). The assessment has to conclude the tree poses an 'unacceptable risk,' meaning removal is the only practical way to bring the risk below moderate. With that documentation in hand, subsection (2) bars the county from requiring any notice, application, approval, permit, fee or mitigation, and subsection (3) bars the county from forcing the owner to replant.

9333, which has nothing to do with ordinary residential shade trees. For Osceola County residents, this means the county's own tree-permit process, wherever it lives in the Land Development Code, cannot be enforced against a documented hazard tree on a single-family lot.