Code of Ordinance
County of Alachua, Florida
Title 34 Design and Development
Chapter 346. Landscaping
Alachua county is located in north central Florida, and contains the city of Gainesville, home of the University of Florida. The purpose of this code is to ensure the placement of landscape elements within off-street paved surface areas. This code applies to all areas of Alachua County that are not incorporated.
The open space requirement sets forth a minimum of 10% of the developed property that must be landscaped. If the total paved surface area of the lot exceeds 5% of the total site area, 50% of the required landscaping must be located within the paved area or within 10’ of the edge of the paved areas. For sites with less than 5% paving, 1 s.f. of landscaping for each 1 s.f. of paving must be located within the paved area or within 10’. For sites with 10,000 s.f. or more of paving, an additional 25 s.f. per each 10,000 s.f., is required.
The street yard planting area is based on paving within 10’ of a street right of way. For each 1 s.f. of paving in this area, 1 s.f. of landscaping is required within 40’ of the same area. The landscaping does not have to be located in a row and may dispersed as long as it is within 40’ of the right of way. Tree credits are given towards a reduction in landscape area requirements. This ranges from 200 s.f. for a 3” tree to 500 s.f. for trees 12” dbh and greater.
Tree planting requirements are based on square footage. The code provides a list of trees that qualify for 200 s.f. which are large trees. Medium trees are credited towards 100 s.f. of the requirement.
A landscape plan is required and must be submitted to the zoning administrator for approval. Single and two family residential properties are except from plan submission. Approval of the plan is required for the issuance of a certificate of occupancy. The zoning administrator is responsible for inspections and enforcement of this code.
There is clearly a problem of large, paved developments in this area that the code is designed to regulate. The code also specifies in great detail site triangles, points of ingress and egress and travel lane delineation which is regulated for very particular uses.
The landscape code for Alachua County is fairly strong considering it applies to a largely agricultural county.
Dan Farrah