Do you need a permit to remove a tree in Brevard County?

Start with the right jurisdiction

A mailing address can mislead. Homes with a Melbourne, Cocoa or Titusville address don't always sit inside those city limits. Your property tax bill shows which city, if any, taxes the parcel.

Then note the species and the trunk diameter 4.5 feet above the ground, called dbh. Brevard County measures it at that height (s. 62-4332), and every threshold below uses it.

Unincorporated Brevard County, including Merritt Island

In the unincorporated county, Merritt Island included, a permit is required before any land clearing unless the property is exempt (s. 62-4337). Land clearing includes cutting down trees. Allowable mowing, trimming and pruning don't count (s. 62-4332).

A protected tree is a hardwood of 10 inches dbh or more on the mainland or Merritt Island, or a softwood such as a pine of 14 inches or more. On the barrier island both thresholds drop to 1.5 inches. Specimen trees are healthy trees of 24 inches or more. Invasive species don't count (s. 62-4332).

Most home lots land in the exemptions. A single-family lot of 1.25 acres or less with a certificate of occupancy is exempt from the canopy and preservation requirements, specimen trees included, as long as minimum landscaping stays. Lots over 1.25 and up to 2.5 acres are exempt except for specimen trees and minimum landscaping. Invasive removal is exempt too, except in shoreline buffers, the Coastal Construction Setback Line and wetlands, where hand-clearing rules apply (s. 62-4334).

Emergency removal of a dead or seriously damaged tree that poses an immediate threat is also exempt. Document it first with photos, rough height, spread and dbh, and the distance to whatever it would hit (s. 62-4334(6)).

Questions go to the county's Natural Resources Management office (Brevard NRMO). Don't test the rule: each protected tree removed in violation counts separately, and the county issues no permits until it's resolved (s. 62-4336).

Palm Bay

Palm Bay rewrote its tree rules in 2024. Under Code s. 175.014 (Ord. 2024-33), a permit is required to remove or damage any tree of 6 inches dbh or more, or any palm with 4.5 feet or more of clear wood. Exceptions include developed single- and two-family lots that meet F.S. 163.045 and give the city that documentation, prohibited species after city approval, and an immediate threat with on-site verbal authorization. After a declared public emergency, the city may also suspend these rules.

The application needs a fee, the recorded deed, a signed hold-harmless agreement and a site sketch showing the dbh and species of every tree on the parcel. Review takes 7 days. Work done without a permit draws a stop-work order and one week to apply at double the fee (s. 175.014).

Accepted reasons for removal include hazards, Class I invasive species, diseased or storm-weakened trees, property damage and construction needs (s. 175.003).

Melbourne and West Melbourne

Melbourne requires a permit to remove a tree unless an exemption applies, and trees may be trimmed up to 20 percent of the canopy without one. Exempt are trees on properties with existing one-, two- and three-family homes, listed invasives such as Brazilian pepper and camphor, and non-viable or dangerous trees. The city manager may waive the rules after a hurricane (LDC s. 9.272).

Wildlife law doesn't care whether a lot is exempt from the city's tree rules. The Florida scrub-jay is federally threatened (FWC scrub-jay profile). Separately, s. 9.272(a)(2) requires approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before vegetation in designated occupied scrub-jay and gopher tortoise habitat is trimmed, removed or altered (s. 9.272(a)(2)). If your lot backs up to scrub, ask the city how that applies before anyone starts.

West Melbourne requires a permit to remove a protected tree listed in its Manual of Acceptable Plantings (s. 71-107), but s. 71-110(b) says no notice, application, permit, fee or mitigation is required to prune, trim or remove a tree on a lot actively used for single-family residential purposes. Listed invasives such as Brazilian pepper and melaleuca are exempt (West Melbourne Code s. 71-110).

Titusville

Under LDR s. 30-39, removing any tree in Titusville takes a city permit unless state or federal law preempts it. The owner of an existing single-family home is exempt, and a home counts as existing one year after its certificate of occupancy. Development common areas aren't exempt, and the City Manager may waive requirements after a hurricane, flood or freeze.

Titusville sorts protected trees, native or Florida-friendly and excluding palms, into classes by dbh: Significant from 14 to under 20 inches, Specimen from 20 to under 46, and Heritage at 46 and up (s. 30-31).

Cocoa and Rockledge

Cocoa's tree protection rules apply to vacant and undeveloped property, open space on developed property and rights-of-way. They don't apply to single-family or duplex lots. Where they do apply, a regulated tree is 6 inches dbh or more and a specimen is a hardwood of 24 inches or more (Cocoa Code, Appendix A, Art. XIII, s. 22).

Rockledge generally requires a permit from its Building Official to remove a tree. Trees on single- or two-family lots are exempt as long as the lot keeps at least four non-invasive trees from the city's list, or a substitute goes in within 30 days for each tree removed. Listed species such as Australian pine, Brazilian pepper and Norfolk Island pine are exempt, as are non-viable or dangerous trees (Rockledge LDR ss. 108-50 and 108-51).

Satellite Beach and the other beach towns

Satellite Beach requires a permit before an owner removes or relocates a protected tree (s. 30-702(c)), and it requires owners to remove dead or severely diseased trees within 60 days. Native dune vegetation seaward of the 1981 Coastal Construction Control Line may not be removed (Satellite Beach Code s. 30-706).

Indialantic, Melbourne Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, Malabar, Palm Shores, Grant-Valkaria and Melbourne Village write their own rules, which this guide doesn't summarize. Call the town's building or code office first. On unincorporated parts of the barrier island, the county's 1.5-inch threshold applies.

F.S. 163.045, the dangerous-tree law

State law limits what any of these governments can demand for a risky tree on a home lot. A local government may not require a notice, permit, fee, mitigation or replanting to prune, trim or remove a tree on residential property when the owner has documentation from an ISA Certified Arborist or a Florida licensed landscape architect that the tree poses an unacceptable risk (F.S. 163.045).

The definitions do the work. The documentation is a signed onsite assessment done under ISA's tree risk assessment practices. Unacceptable risk means removal is the only practical way to bring the risk below moderate. Residential property means a single-family detached home on a lot used that way, so vacant lots, multifamily and commercial sites aren't covered, and mangroves are excluded (F.S. 163.045).

Cities read it narrowly. Cocoa's code says the exemption doesn't reach HOA or condo common areas, vacant residential land or rights-of-way (Cocoa s. 22), and Palm Bay wants the documentation handed to the city (s. 175.014). ISA certification is a private credential, not a state license, and ISA will confirm a person's credential status for the public (ISA). Ask for the certification number and check it.

Trimming is a separate question

In the unincorporated county, ordinary trimming isn't land clearing, but pruning that damages a tree's viability can be treated as land clearing, along with root damage and grade changes over the roots (s. 62-4338(7)). Inside an established electric utility right-of-way, no local government may require a permit for the utility's vegetation maintenance (F.S. 163.3209).

Before anyone cuts

Codes change, and this is general information, not legal advice. Read the linked section yourself, and let the office named in it have the final word.

• Measure the trunk 4.5 feet up and note the species. A laurel oak and a Brazilian pepper are treated very differently.
• If the tree is dead or failing, photograph it before anything happens to it.
• Ask the crew you're matched with who applies for any permit, and see it before work starts.