What does land clearing cost in Brevard County?

The published per-acre numbers

HomeAdvisor's land clearing cost guide, updated June 17, 2026, gives a national typical range of $1,397 to $6,176 for a clearing job, with an average of about $3,780 (HomeAdvisor land clearing cost guide). These are national figures, not Brevard quotes and not our quote.

The same guide prices the work by how much is growing on the land, with an overall range of $500 to $5,600 per acre (HomeAdvisor). Its acre and lot rows, side by side:

Per lot: the quarter-acre and half-acre rows

A Port Malabar house lot gets priced as one small job, not as acreage. HomeAdvisor's lot-size table, shown in the rows above, puts a quarter acre at $125 to $500 when it's lightly wooded and $750 to $1,400 when it's heavily forested (HomeAdvisor lot-size table).

Read those rows with care. They're roughly the per-acre rate cut down to the lot's size, but a small job still has to cover trucking a machine to the site and back, plus at least one trip to dump whatever gets hauled. A quote for a single lot often won't shrink in proportion to its size. Use the table to sanity-check a quote, not to set a budget.

Published estimates for Palm Bay and Melbourne

HomeBlue, a contractor directory, publishes city-level estimates that it says are based on feedback from land clearing services. Its Palm Bay page, published March 21, 2022, gives $2,500 to $4,000 per acre depending on how much foliage is on the property (HomeBlue, Palm Bay land clearing cost).

Its Melbourne page, from the same date, gives $2,500 to $3,900 per acre (HomeBlue, Melbourne land clearing cost). Both pages are more than four years old, and neither is a quote for your land.

Line items that land on top of clearing

A clearing price often covers the cutting and nothing around it. HomeAdvisor lists these as separate national ranges, and each one is worth a line of its own on a written quote:

• Stump removal: $100 to $150 per stump (HomeAdvisor).
• Grading and leveling: $1,000 to $3,300 (HomeAdvisor).
• Debris removal: $100 to $800 (HomeAdvisor).
• Land surveys: $800 to $5,500 (HomeAdvisor).
• Permits: $200 to $2,500 (HomeAdvisor).

Brevard costs a national table won't show

Permits. A fee-based Palm Bay permit covers any land clearing on a residential lot under 1 acre, along with removing trees of 6 inches or more in diameter (Palm Bay Code s. 175.014). Outside city limits, Brevard County requires a land clearing permit unless the property is exempt (Brevard County Code s. 62-4337). Ask the office that issues yours for its current fee before you budget.

Gopher tortoises. If the work can't stay 25 feet from a burrow, FWC requires a permit. Moving tortoises off the site takes an Authorized Gopher Tortoise Agent and a recipient site, both of which charge fees, and FWC collects a mitigation contribution (FWC, 10 or Fewer Burrows permit). The gopher tortoise guide has the details.

Scrub-jay lots. Palm Bay's habitat plan has the city collect an environmental service fee with each building permit it issues, and lots inside the mapped scrub-jay areas can't be cleared from March 1 through June 30 except in limited cases (City of Palm Bay, Habitat Conservation Plan). A lot that misses the window waits, and waiting costs money when a builder is on the calendar. See the scrub-jay lots guide.

Burning won't save money on a house lot. Florida Forest Service rules require an authorization for every land clearing pile burn and, for residential debris, 300 feet between the pile and other people's occupied buildings (FFS, Know the Law). With houses on both sides, a lot can't meet that, so the material gets mulched or hauled, and hauling is a line on the quote.

An acre or more. Disturbing 1 acre or more brings in Florida's stormwater Construction Generic Permit, with a pollution prevention plan and a notice filed at least 2 calendar days before work starts. FDEP lists the fee as $250 for 1 to 5 acres and $400 for 5 acres or more (FDEP Construction Generic Permit).

Clearing without a permit. In Palm Bay, an after-the-fact application costs double the fee and can come with a restoration plan of replacement trees (Palm Bay Code ch. 175). In the unincorporated county, each quarter acre cleared in violation counts as a separate violation, and no permits or certificates of occupancy are issued until it's resolved (Brevard County Code s. 62-4336).

Mulch it or haul it

Forestry mulching grinds brush and small trees where they stand and leaves the chips on the ground. A dozer or excavator pulls stumps and roots but leaves piles that have to go somewhere. HomeAdvisor's per-acre figure for mulching, $400 to $600 an acre for pasture clearing, sits well below its $3,600 to $5,600 an acre for heavily forested land (HomeAdvisor), but a chip layer isn't what a builder wants under a slab.

A house lot can mix the two: stumps out where the house and driveway go, mulch on the rest. The mulching vs. bulldozing guide walks through the trade-off.

How to get a real number

Send the parcel ID or address, the rough size and a few photos of the thickest part. Say what the land is for: a house pad, a cleaner back acre, a fence line, a lot you plan to sell. The crew you're matched with will want to walk the land before committing to a price.

Ask for the written price to split out clearing, stumps, haul-off or mulch, and grading or fill, so two quotes can be compared line by line. Ask who applies for the permit, and whether the price assumes there are no gopher tortoise burrows near the work.