Land Clearing in Titusville, FL for Vacant Lots and North Brevard Acreage

Last Updated: October 31, 2026

A Titusville house that has held its certificate of occupancy for more than a year can lose a tree without a city permit, while the vacant lot next door cannot lose one of 4 inches without asking first. So the first thing Flatwood Land Clearing Palm Bay settles on a Titusville lot clearing, building site or acreage job is which side of that line the property sits on; licensed and insured contractors then carry out the clearing.

Four inches, measured four and a half feet up

Titusville’s land development code, as rewritten by Ordinance 20-2021, says no one may cut down, remove or effectively destroy a tree with a trunk of 4 inches or more, measured 4.5 feet above the ground, before a city permit. That is a lower line than Palm Bay’s 6 inches. The exemption is for the owner of an existing single-family dwelling, and existing means a year after the certificate of occupancy, so a buyer of a vacant lot or a brand-new house is inside the rule. Common areas and tracts in a subdivision are not exempt. The permit goes through Community Development’s Site Permits desk with an application and a drawing of tree locations. Dead, diseased and hazard trees have the fee waived, and trees the code classes as nuisance trees need no permit. Where the work is lot clearing for a new house, that drawing is also the start of the scope.

Large trees are counted in inches

The code sorts native trees into three tiers: significant from 14 to under 20 inches, specimen from 20 to under 46, and heritage at 46 inches and up. A heritage tree needs Development Review Committee approval before removal. Replacement is counted in trunk inches. In residential subdivisions and projects that meet the canopy targets, the removed diameter is replaced at 50 percent for significant trees, 100 percent for specimen and 200 percent for heritage; projects that miss the targets replace specimen and heritage trees two for one and owe nothing for significant ones. When replanting is not possible, the last resort is a payment per net inch lost to the city’s Public Landscaping Trust Fund, and the code sets a lower rate when trees are logged instead of burned. So a 24-inch live oak in the middle of a building pad can carry real cost, and selective clearing that moves a driveway around it may pay for itself.

Canopy targets and the scrub oak credit

Titusville also sets canopy targets. Residential subdivisions must keep 25 percent total canopy, 15 percent of it preserved, and other development, including single-family lots outside a subdivision, can meet 20 and 10 percent to earn reduced mitigation. Undisturbed scrub oak, sand live oak and Chapman oak over 36 inches tall can count as canopy. That matters here because Brevard County’s scrub-jay map shows 12 historical survey polygons reaching into the city, covering about 3,724 acres, with 42 families counted in 1993 and 27 in 2000 to 2002. A lot with scrub on it is screened before clearing, as the scrub-jay guide explains, and the same scrub may be the cheapest canopy to keep.

No burn pile on a normal job

Titusville’s code, amended by Ordinance 33-2021, prohibits fires for burning trash, underbrush and similar material in connection with land clearing. The fire chief can approve a special burn permit for large-scale clearing, case by case, with a fee to the fire department and a city permit carrying Florida Forest Service and fire department conditions, and burning without a permit is fined for each occurrence. So debris on an ordinary lot is planned from the start as chipping and spreading, forestry mulching in place, or loading for debris hauling. The guide to burning land clearing debris covers the state rules that sit under the city’s.

Subdivision lots and large tracts

Brevard County’s parcel data shows two scales of work in Titusville. There are 801 vacant platted single-family lots averaging a quarter acre, led by Tranquility, Verona Village, Odyssey Ridge, Huntington Park, Read and Allens and Lincoln Park, next to 15,079 homes on lots of about the same size. And there are 30 vacant unplatted single-family parcels of 5 acres or more, about 1,264 acres between them, plus vacant commercial and industrial tracts. The city’s fee schedule reflects that split: land alteration and clearing permits are charged a base fee plus an amount per acre, and tree removal a base fee plus an amount per tree, per the city’s current schedule. Larger tracts heading for a site plan fit commercial land clearing, with clearing and grubbing where a pad will be built. The lot clearing cost guide explains what drives the clearing price itself, and what to do after land clearing covers the steps once the machines leave.