Homestead, FL Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Section 29-6(3)(b) of the City Code sets the standard for street trees, the plantings placed in the parkway or swale area along roadways within a development. Species must come from the Landscape Manual's list of suggested canopy street trees, be low-maintenance and drought-tolerant, mature to at least 20 feet, and carry a medium or high wind-tolerance rating. At planting, each street tree needs a four-foot clear trunk, a minimum overall height of 12 feet, and a minimum trunk diameter of two inches, and trees must run along each side of every roadway in the development at an average spacing of no more than 35 feet on center.

For zero-lot-line and townhouse projects, that 35-foot average is calculated across the whole project's linear roadway frontage rather than lot by lot. Street trees are not required where a public colonnade sits within four feet of the roadway edge, but every other street-tree standard in the chapter still applies. 5-inch trunk diameter, and 25-foot spacing, using species from the Landscape Manual's list for planting near power lines. Section 29-6(3)(d) allows palms to substitute for canopy street trees one-for-one, but caps palms at 30 percent of the total street trees required.

Existing development undergoing exterior alterations requiring a building permit, or a paving permit for parking expansion, must also meet these street-tree requirements under Section 29-1(2), even though such existing sites are otherwise exempt from the rest of the landscape ordinance.