Coconut Creek, FL Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Coconut Creek Code § 13-443(11) sets the street tree standard adopted by the Coconut Creek City Commission. Species and location are meant to provide a consistent theme with surrounding properties, and selection follows Right-Tree-Right-Place principles. The developer or builder installs the trees before requesting the final landscape and zoning inspection and before the certificate of occupancy issues.

The count is tied to frontage. Where overhead utilities do not exist, one tree is required for each 40 linear feet of street frontage or portion thereof. Where overhead utility lines exist, the ratio tightens to one tree per 30 linear feet. Vehicular access ways that meet the code or were legally approved by the city are excluded from the frontage calculation.

Street trees are in addition to required property or buffer trees and are planted in the rights-of-way along each street frontage, outside any required buffer. Where the right-of-way is too narrow, the trees go in the adjacent landscape buffer or on private land no more than 10 feet from the front property line, as close to in-line with existing street trees on the block as possible. The director of sustainable development or designee can allow placement farther than 10 feet because of utility easement conflicts, provided the trees stay within the front yard. Trees can be clustered, but no closer than 25 feet and no farther than 60 feet apart.

Species come from the Recommended Tree List kept by the city's urban forester, and palms are considered only under specific circumstances. Related rules protect the planting strip. Section 13-444(a)(12) requires a root barrier for trees within six feet of sidewalks or paving, and Table 13-444.T1 sets soil area at 100 square feet for a small tree, 400 for a medium tree and 900 for a large tree. In the swale itself, § 13-424(b) allows only sod within 15 feet of the pavement edge at each intersection, and § 13-425(b) lets median strip landscaping go in under plans the city approves.