Sanford, FL Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

The root-barrier rule is item C.5 of the Streetscapes standards in Schedule D, Section 4.0 of the Land Development Regulations, the same PD design chapter that requires sidewalks on both sides of the right-of-way (C.1), at least two pedestrian connections to trails, transit stops or the public street network (C.2), and decorative street lighting matched to the development's architecture (C.4). It applies to trees planted near sidewalks inside a Residential Planned Development, not to street trees citywide. The Land Development Regulations separately define a 'parkway strip' in the Article XI glossary (Section 11.2) as the unpaved right-of-way area between the back of curb and the sidewalk, an area that includes street light poles, utility poles, signage and street trees, but that glossary entry sets no planting standard of its own.

The deep-root-barrier sentence in Section 4.0.C.5 is the specific text the code uses to keep tree roots from lifting sidewalk panels in new PD subdivisions, and it points designers toward tap-rooted species rather than fibrous-rooted trees for that reason. The requirement sits next to Schedule D's perimeter landscaping standard (Section 4.0.D), which separately requires PD developments to meet the buffer and tree provisions of Schedule J and to build a four-foot masonry wall along the subdivision perimeter. Because Section 4.0 governs PD projects specifically, a conventional subdivision plat outside a PD is not bound by this sentence, though its sidewalks remain subject to the general landscape and tree standards of Schedule J.