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Melbourne Beach planning board asks staff to redraft landscaping and tree ordinance after debate over native-plant mandate
Summary
Board members and residents debated whether the town’s draft ordinance should require or only encourage native plants, with public commenters and environmental board members urging mandates and staff warning about code wording, enforceability and statutory exceptions; the board voted to have staff produce a revised "version 3."
The Melbourne Beach Planning & Zoning Board spent most of its Feb. 3 meeting reviewing a proposed landscaping and tree ordinance and voted to ask staff to prepare a revised "version 3" that incorporates changes the board discussed.
The central dispute was whether the ordinance should require native plants or merely encourage them. Board members repeatedly emphasized support for native plants in principle but said mandatory numeric thresholds—specifically a line in the draft that landscaping "shall be comprised of 50% native plants"—would be burdensome and difficult to enforce on the town’s mostly small residential lots. One member summarized the board’s position as preferring to "encourage not require" native plantings.
Interim town planner Lisa Frasier, a certified planner who said she has written codes for 30 years, urged clearer drafting and cautioned the board about embedding operational detail…
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