Land Clearing in Sebastian, FL

What a wooded Sebastian lot is like

The original streets and drainage were laid out in the late 1950s, for about 15,000 single-family home sites. Census figures show nearly 9 in 10 homes here are single-family detached houses. About 3 in 10 were built in the 1980s, and nearly 3 in 10 more from 2000 to 2009. More than 1 in 10 went up in 2010 or later, and building goes on today.

Under the trees, most of the city sits on flat, poorly drained sand. NRCS soil maps show mostly flatwoods sands, and Myakka fine sand, Florida's state soil, is among them. On the most common of these soils, the seasonal high water table sits about a foot below the surface. A few smaller areas have sand that NRCS rates as excessively drained.

Parts of Sebastian Highlands are Florida scrub-jay habitat. The county manages a 10-acre scrub preserve on Schumann Drive, mostly oak scrub and scrubby flatwoods. It belongs to an area-wide scrub-jay plan for the Highlands that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved in 2000.

Sebastian's tree code and the land clearing permit

Inside the city limits, the land development code requires a permit to clear any lot or acreage. Removing a protected or specimen tree takes a permit too. Protected means 4 inches or more across at chest height, and specimen means 10 inches or more. Cabbage palms count, but other palms do not.

The application goes to the city's Building Department with a survey of the lot. The survey shows each protected tree, and the ones to come out are circled in red. The city inspects the lot before it issues the permit. Then the permit is posted on the lot before any clearing starts.

The code also says undesirable exotic trees must come out at clearing. Brazilian pepper and Australian pine are both on that list, and neither counts toward a lot's tree minimum. We mulch or pull them as part of our Brazilian pepper removal work. The plan for what stays and what goes comes first, as part of site preparation.

Gopher tortoises are a state-listed threatened species in Florida. The city's grubbing form asks owners to mark any burrows. If an inspection finds tortoises, the code requires state permits before the city permit. FWC counts any work within 25 feet of a burrow as a disturbance that needs its permit first.

Drainage and fill rules on Sebastian lots

Most stormwater here runs through swales and canals to the St. Sebastian River, then on to the Indian River Lagoon. The city says each homeowner keeps the front-yard swale and the driveway culvert mowed and clean. The code wants front-yard swales shaped so water does not pond. We level a lot with that swale in mind.

A driveway that crosses a swale sits on a culvert pipe, and the city engineer permits that pipe. The code calls for a primary driveway surfaced with asphalt or concrete, unless the engineer approves another material. We clear and rough-grade the driveway path, and a paving contractor surfaces it.

In a flood hazard zone, the code sets a home's finished floor at least 24 inches above the road crown. The city also has a fill and excavation application. It asks for the cubic yards and any outside approval, such as from the St. Johns River Water Management District. Our excavating and dirt work spreads the fill and levels the lot.

How our land clearing works on a Sebastian lot

We start with the survey and a look at the lot, and we mark the trees you keep. The disc mulcher on our skid steer grinds brush and small trees into mulch where they stand. On open, overgrown ground, our brush mower cuts growth down faster than grinding. Wet sand ruts under heavy equipment, so we plan the work around ground conditions.

Trees marked for removal come out roots and all with the tree puller. Bigger trees and stumps come out with a rented excavator, as part of clearing the whole lot. Then we haul off the debris. The stump holes get filled, and the lot is left level for your builder.