Port Orange, FL Tree Protection: Protected Tree Species (2026)

Article IV of the Land Development Code's environmental protection chapter adds a city-level layer of review for listed plant and animal species on top of state and federal rules, without replacing those other layers. Listed species likely to occur in Port Orange are catalogued in the natural communities listing in the code's appendix. Section 32 requires any PUD, PCD, site plan or conceptual subdivision application meeting the size thresholds in Section 33 to include a scaled exhibit that maps the site's vegetative community types, notes any evidence of listed species, and describes the field survey method used, such as transects or arrays.

Where evidence of a listed species turns up, the applicant must show how the project will protect it, weighed against approval from the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, any state or federal relocation permits needed (for example, to move gopher tortoises), dedication of a conservation easement to the city, and whether that easement connects to adjoining conservation land or the city's Spruce Creek environmental corridor. Section 33 sets the size trigger using two mapped zones. Zone A covers the city's extensively developed areas, where the threshold is a 20-acre development tract; Zone B covers sparsely developed areas with higher habitat potential, where the threshold drops to 10 acres.

Projects below those thresholds, and development orders issued before November 1, 1990, are exempt from the city-level review, though they remain subject to state and federal listed-species law, including the standard process for relocating listed wildlife. A project that already filed a listed species protection application within the previous five years is also exempt from filing again.