Lot Clearing in Lehigh Acres, FL

Lot clearing in Lehigh Acres usually starts with one vacant, pre-platted lot of a quarter or half acre, grown up in pines, palmetto and Brazilian pepper, that's about to become a house site. Lee County doesn't list a single-family lot that small among the clearing jobs that need a vegetation removal permit, so the things that really set the schedule are different: burrows, wetlands, fill height, the driveway permit, any canal out back, and the septic and well steps. This guide puts them in a workable order.

What a Lehigh lot starts as

Lee County's planning page for Lehigh Acres describes it as "a 96-square-mile, pre-platted residential community" of mostly quarter-acre and half-acre single-family lots. A 1975 USGS report dates development to 1954 and the drainage district that built the canal network to 1958. Its successor, the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District (LA-MSID), maintains 311 miles of canals, according to a 2017 Florida House bill analysis.

The ground under the brush can be shallow. The USGS report found Lehigh's sand seldom more than 20 feet thick and missing in places, with marl showing at the surface where it runs out. Two soils common in Lee County flatwoods carry slash pine and saw palmetto: the NRCS description of Hallandale puts rock 7 to 20 inches down, and Boca puts limestone at 20 to 40 inches, both with a water table near the surface for months of the year. Whether either one is mapped on your lot is something a soil map or a site visit answers, not this page.

A workable order for a new house

This order is assembled from Lee County's single-family permit guide and the agencies named below. It's a practical sequence, not a county rule, so confirm timing with the Department of Community Development (DCD) before machines show up.

1. Walk the lot for burrows and wet ground. Gopher tortoise and burrowing owl burrows each carry FWC buffers. Wetlands on a single-family parcel generally go to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for an Environmental Resource Permit, and the county won't release a building permit on a parcel with wetlands until that permit is issued and a copy is on file.
2. Start septic and water. For a new septic system, the county guide says to apply at the Health Department before the building permit and include the paid receipt. A lot on a private well needs a signed Well Affidavit; a lot on central service needs a letter from the utility confirming it's available.
3. Have the survey and site plan drawn. The plan must be at a scale of at least 1/8 inch to the foot and show all four lot corners, the streets, any water body within 25 feet, driveways, easements and setbacks.
4. Plan the fill if the finished grade will end up more than 18 inches above the road crown or a developed lot next door (see below).
5. Pull the building permit. Work over $2,500 needs a Notice of Commencement recorded with the Clerk before the permit is issued, and an owner-builder has to sign the state owner-builder disclosure in person.
6. Clear the house pad, driveway path and septic area, with every machine kept outside any burrow buffer.
7. Set the driveway and culvert under a Lee County DOT right-of-way permit.
8. Grade and finish the inspections. A certified elevation certificate is due before the tie-beam or framing inspection; the driveway needs its final inspection, and a new well its finaled permit, before the Certificate of Occupancy.

Is a permit needed just to clear?

Lee County's vegetation removal permit guide (last updated June 2026) sorts the single-family clearing that needs that permit by size and location, and on the mainland the line is 5 acres. The county's submittal requirements put it as a single-family lot "five acres or more in unincorporated Lee County." A quarter- or half-acre Lehigh lot sits far below that, so it generally doesn't need a vegetation removal permit just to take trees down.

That isn't a blanket all-clear. Wildlife, wetlands, the road right-of-way, canal property, fill and drainage each have their own rules, all covered on this page. If you want the lot cleared well ahead of the building permit, put the question to the county first: email DCDVegetation@leegov.com or call DCD at 239-533-8585, describe the lot, and ask whether anything in the land development code affects clearing it now. The Lee County tree rules guide goes further into the thresholds.

Clearing now and building later

One question that comes up on local forums is whether to clear a lot years before building, without waiting for a builder. Three things are worth weighing first:

• Regrowth. A cleared lot doesn't stay cleared. Lee County's lot mowing ordinance treats grass and weeds over 12 inches on qualifying vacant lots near developed property as a nuisance. See overgrown lots and code violations.
• Owls. FWC counts vacant lots among the places burrowing owls live, so a lot that sits open for years deserves a fresh walk-through for burrows before the builder starts.
• Your paper trail. Keep the county's answer to your early-clearing question in writing, along with the contractor's scope of work.

Fill, grade and the 18-inch line

The county's permit guide sets a trigger for fill. When the final grade will be more than 18 inches above the road crown or an adjacent developed lot, and the lot isn't in a subdivision with an active Development Order, the lot has to comply with Land Development Code §34-3104 and a site fill grading plan goes in with the application. A scattered Lehigh lot may not sit inside an active Development Order, so ask DCD about yours; if it doesn't, the 18-inch line is the one to plan around.

Elevation matters later, too: the county wants a certified elevation certificate on the NAVD datum before the tie-beam or framing inspection. For developments it permits, LA-MSID's permitting policy calls for finished floors above the 100-year, 3-day peak stage, and the District posts a peak stages map; ask the District whether that standard reaches a single lot.

For the clearing itself, write two things into the quote: that stumps and roots come out of the house pad and driveway footprint instead of being covered with fill, and who prepares or follows the fill grading plan.

The swale, the driveway and the culvert

A driveway onto a county road needs a Lee County DOT residential driveway permit, applied for in eConnect. It costs $95 for a single driveway and $120 for a double. DOT's driveway request worksheet says no work may happen in the right-of-way before the permit is issued, the stakeout must be requested within 30 days of payment, inspections are requested 24 hours ahead, and the county requires a poured concrete or asphalt apron from the edge of the road to the right-of-way line. The driveway has to pass its final inspection before the house can get a Certificate of Occupancy.

Inspections are booked at 239-533-8997 by code: 750 for the stakeout, 751 culvert, 752 form, 753 limerock and 754 final. Permit questions go to 239-533-9300 or dotengineering@leegov.com. The worksheet doesn't give a pipe size or material, so ask DOT before anyone buys culvert pipe, and ask who maintains your street if you aren't sure it's a county road.

In practice, that means no brush piles, parked machines or digging in the swale until the driveway permit is in hand.

Lots that back onto a canal

If the lot touches a canal or District land, LA-MSID is involved. Under a permitting policy in effect since October 1, 2022, anyone who wants to connect to, cross, or place a structure on District lands or drainage facilities needs a District permit. The policy requires culverts to be designed by a Florida-licensed professional engineer, calls for reinforced concrete pipe above 12 inches unless the District Engineer approves otherwise, keeps a berm of at least 15 feet from the top of the bank, bars permanent buildings, pools and parking on District rights-of-way, and doubles fees when work starts without a permit.

LA-MSID's permits page and its 2022 policy describe the single-family threshold differently, so don't assume either way. Call the District at 239-368-0044 (601 East County Lane, Monday to Thursday, 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.) before clearing near the bank.

Tortoises and burrowing owls

FWC treats any work within 25 feet of a gopher tortoise burrow as a disturbance. If every burrow on and next to the lot can be kept 25 feet clear in all directions, no permit is needed; if not, a permit comes before the clearing. Burrowing owls have their own seasonal buffers in FWC's guidelines: 10 feet from July 11 to February 14 and 33 feet from February 15 to July 10. See gopher tortoises on a lot and burrowing owls on a lot.

Septic, well and where they will sit

The Health Department in Lee County says every new septic application in unincorporated Lee County must be designed by a Florida licensed professional engineer. Its base fee is $390, plus $115 when a site evaluation is needed, and lots of 1 acre or less without sewer inside a BMAP area need a nitrogen-reducing system. Questions go to LeeEH@flhealth.gov; the county guide lists 2295 Victoria Avenue and 239-690-2100.

Wells are common here: a South Florida Water Management District memo notes that the health department has documented over 30,000 wells in the Lehigh area, and, as of that 2016 memo, new wells there needed at least 100 feet of casing; confirm current rules with the county. Lee County Natural Resources handles well permitting at 239-533-8810. Where central water and sewer reach, the Florida Governmental Utility Authority (FGUA) runs them, and its website has a service-address lookup.

Clear the drainfield, tank and well areas once the design shows where they go, so the quote matches the plan.

Where the debris goes

• Hauled away. Lee County's curbside yard waste is one pickup a week, with containers and bundles of 50 pounds or less and bundles no longer than 6 feet. For bigger jobs, the county says to call your hauler for an estimate. A lot's worth of trunks and stumps leaves by truck.
• Mulched along the sides and back, away from the house pad. See forestry mulching.
• Burned only with a Florida Forest Service authorization, never during a county burn ban, and with state setbacks from neighbors' homes that run to hundreds of feet, which is rarely workable on a lot with houses nearby. See burning clearing debris.
• Not buried. Ask for wood to be hauled or ground, not pushed into a hole under the pad.

What lot clearing costs

HomeAdvisor's 2025 national guide puts a quarter acre at $125 to $500 when lightly wooded and $750 to $1,400 when heavily forested, a half acre at $250 to $1,000 lightly wooded and $1,800 to $2,800 heavily forested, and stump removal at $100 to $150 a stump. Fixr's guide, updated January 31, 2025, gives $125 to $1,250 for a quarter-acre lot.

Those are national figures, not Lehigh prices. Government fees, such as the $95 or $120 driveway permit or the $390 septic base fee, are separate from clearing. The number that counts is the contractor's written quote after walking your lot. More on cost.

When a clearing contractor is not the first call

• The lot is wet or mapped with hydric soils: start with DEP's South District in Fort Myers, 239-344-5600.
• A burrow sits where the house has to go: the FWC permit question comes before the clearing price.
• The lot is inside Fort Myers, Cape Coral or another city: that city's rules apply, and this site covers unincorporated Lee County.
• The lot only needs the grass knocked down: see overgrown lots.

Lot clearing questions

Does a quarter-acre Lehigh lot need a tree permit?

Not under Lee County's vegetation removal permit list, which starts at 5 acres for single-family lots on the mainland. Burrow buffers, wetlands, the right-of-way and canal rules still apply, and DCD (239-533-8585) can confirm the answer for your parcel.

Should I worry about the ground settling?

Go by the soil, not by rumor. The USGS found Lehigh's sand seldom more than 20 feet thick, two common Lee County flatwoods soils have rock 7 to 40 inches down, and at one Lehigh well the USGS recorded water 1 to 4 feet below the surface in 1968 to 1970. Make sure stumps and roots come out of the pad, follow the fill grading plan if one is required, and let the builder's engineer decide on the foundation.

Who gets the driveway permit?

Agree on it in writing with your builder or contractor. Whoever applies, nothing should happen in the right-of-way until DOT issues the permit, and the final inspection has to happen before the Certificate of Occupancy.

Can the whole lot be cleared in one go?

For a small single-family lot the county tree permit doesn't limit it, but burrow buffers and any canal berm can. If you want to keep some healthy pines away from the pad, mark them before the machine arrives.

What does it cost to clear a Lehigh lot?

National guides put a quarter acre anywhere from about $125 to $1,400 depending on how wooded it is. Use those figures to sanity-check a quote, not to replace one. See the cost guide.

Getting a quote for your lot

Call or use the form with the lot's street or parcel number, whether the building permit is in, and any burrows or canal frontage you know about. The request goes to one independent local contractor, who can walk the lot and give you a written price. Whether to hire them is your decision, and the referral is free.

Related pages

• Lee County tree rules
• Gopher tortoises on a lot
• Burrowing owls on a lot
• Permits by job
• Stump grinding