Gainesville, FL Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Gainesville's tree lawn, the pervious strip between the back-of-curb and the sidewalk, is defined at Sec. 1 and is the default planting location for street trees under Sec. G. Every development must line the sides of all streets within the project, and the development side of any street it fronts, with high-quality shade trees selected from the Gainesville Tree List in Sec. 10. The spacing formula ties to frontage rather than lot count: one tree for every 30 to 50 feet of street frontage, with the exact interval set by the canopy area the chosen species needs, but never closer than 25 feet nor farther apart than 60 feet, and alleys are exempt entirely.

Street trees must go into a tree lawn at least eight feet wide, or, where an eight-foot tree lawn will not fit, a tree well with a minimum four-foot by four-foot surface opening. Driveway widths crossing the frontage are subtracted from the linear footage used to calculate how many trees are required. On-street parking spaces may sit between the required trees as long as the full count is still met and each tree gets its required rootzone volume. Where possible, trees go between the street and the public sidewalk; they may instead be planted between the sidewalk and the building only when existing utility lines or a public works clear-zone requirement blocks the curbside location, in which case the tree may sit as close as five feet from the building face.

The city may also require builders to shift the standard build-to line to protect utility, building and pavement separations for the new trees, and where an existing champion or high-quality heritage tree already stands in the right-of-way or within 20 feet of it, the development must be designed to preserve it as a street tree instead of planting new stock.