S449 - Continuing Budget Operations Part IV. (SL 2025-97)

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Session Year 2025

Overview: Section 1D.8 of S.L. 2024-57 (Senate Bill 382) prevented local governments in areas affected by Hurricane Helene from enforcing ordinances regulating the removal, replacement, and preservation of trees on private property, including tree removal, trimming, or maintenance activities, or require a permit for those activities, on the portion of any private property that is more than 10 feet from the property boundary.

 

Notwithstanding that limitation, Section 1.4 of S.L. 2025-97 (Senate Bill 449) extends the expiration date of Section 1D.8 of S.L. 2024-57 from March 1, 2025 to October 1, 2026. Section 1.4 also amends that section to allow local governments in areas affected by Hurricane Helene to enforce an existing ordinance that regulates the removal, replacement, and preservation of trees on private property for the purpose of protecting life or property from natural hazard damage, but not for the purposes of aesthetic or general environmental purposes.

 

This section became effective October 22, 2025, and applies only to local governments located in the affected area that qualify, in whole or in part, for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Public Assistance Categories C through G.