Clearing Non-Native Trees and Plants - Permit

14 June 2018

Keith and I met with the Environmental Resource Division (ERD) representative at the property today at 10:30AM. As I’ve stated before building a house in Florida is very complicated and very time consuming just to get a permit issued. So in the state of Florida if you are building a house on land larger than a traditional size lot you need to have the land surveyed to determine which trees you can remove and which trees need to stay. If you need to remove a tree in order to build the house and say its an oak or some other native tree, chances are you will have to either move it or purchase another an plant it elsewhere on the property (mediate the loss). If all you want to do is to remove the exotics (non-native) you still need a permit (different type) and they still will come out and survey the property and tell you what you can remove. I was concerned about the survey since we had put in the service access (road) to the house location and cleared where the house was going to be before actually submitting the paperwork for the environmental survey. We felt pretty confident that we were ok since having removed the required tortoises, there was only one place that the road could go. As exasperating as it is working with the building department to get awarded a building permit, working with the ERD was a very simple and good experience. We met Lynn at the property and started walking it asking her about every tree and shrub we saw. Her response, take all the exotics out and leave the only native trees I have on the property, namely the Cabbage Palms. End of story! She oked both the permit for clearing out the exotics and the the permit that is necessary in order to obtain the building permit while we were walking the property. There was no need to wait to clear the property, start whenever we wanted. Her other report to the building department would be submitted within 24 hours. Unbelievable, someone who is actually trying to help speed the process along! Thank you Lynn! The actual completion date is 6/19/2019, a year, its a typo.