Land Clearing Palm Beach County & Loxahatchee

Land clearing Loxahatchee starts with the Bobcat T740 and its 60" grapple, based right at our own yard at 16140 Okeechobee Blvd — the same machine and operator quoted at $1,385/day on every acreage lot from a quarter-acre backyard clear to a full 5-acre parcel. Most Loxahatchee jobs are Brazilian pepper thickets, Melaleuca stands, palmetto and slash pine that have taken over a 1.25-acre-and-up lot, and because the yard sits in Loxahatchee itself, the machine can be on site the same week rather than trucked in from across the county.

Land clearing Palm Beach County work covers a lot more ground than our home base in Loxahatchee. The Bobcat T740 with its 60" grapple is based right here at 16140 Okeechobee Blvd, but it travels on its own hauler trailer to lots the length of the county — north through Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens, across Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, The Acreage, Greenacres, Lake Worth, Palm Springs and West Palm Beach, and south to Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. Wherever the lot sits, the rate is the same: $1,385 a day, with an operator, for the T740 and grapple — the one number every estimate in this county starts from.

What triggers a permit is the same question everywhere in Palm Beach County, but who answers it is not. Inside unincorporated county territory — which covers most of the western communities plus large stretches between the cities — a land-clearing or vegetation-removal permit runs through the county's Planning, Zoning & Building Division, 2300 North Jog Road, West Palm Beach, filed through the ePZB portal. Grubbing native trees, cabbage palms, or a lot down to bare dirt is what usually trips that requirement; clearing invasive exotics like Brazilian pepper or Melaleuca generally does not. Each incorporated city — Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Jupiter, Boynton Beach, and the rest — runs its own version of the same review through its own building department, so the desk changes even when the rule does not.

The Acreage carries one more layer the rest of the county doesn't: it sits inside the Indian Trail Improvement District (ITID), 13476 61st Street North, which permits and inspects any clearing that touches a driveway, culvert, or the swale along an ITID right-of-way — separately from, and in addition to, the county building permit. A lot elsewhere in the county answers to one desk; an Acreage lot can answer to two. We check both, or the single city desk that applies, before the Bobcat ever mobilizes — wherever in Palm Beach County the job is.

What does land clearing cost in Palm Beach County? Our equipment is $1,385 per day with an operator (Bobcat T740, 60" grapple). What the job totals depends on vegetation type and density, access, stump grubbing, and whether debris is hauled off or mulched in place. We give the number after a free walk of the lot, not from a table. The cost guide explains each driver.

Who permits it? That depends on where the lot is: unincorporated county, a city or town, or an improvement district. Our permits and regulations guide lists the offices, and we confirm the right one for your parcel before booking.

Grading as well as clearing? Yes. See our town-by-town grading pages, including Bobcat grading in Jupiter Bobcat grading in Boynton Beach and new Bobcat grading in Delray Beach. Call (561) 779-3213 for a free site walk and a straight answer.

Loxahatchee, The Acreage, and much of western Palm Beach County sit on 1.25-acre-and-up lots carved out of old flatwoods and Everglades-edge scrub. That means most clearing jobs out here are not a manicured backyard trim — they are Brazilian pepper thickets, Melaleuca stands, slash pine, palmetto, and cabbage palm that have had years to take over. Knowing what is on your lot before the machine arrives is what keeps a one-day job from turning into three.

Do you need a permit to clear land in Palm Beach County? Often, yes — and the answer depends on what you are cutting and where. Palm Beach County protects native and specimen trees, and the western communities frequently have wetland areas, native-vegetation preserve requirements, and drainage easements running through them. Selective clearing of exotic, invasive species (Brazilian pepper, Melaleuca, Australian pine, air potato) is usually encouraged, but removing native pines, oaks, and cabbage palms — or grubbing a lot down to bare dirt — can trigger a land-clearing or vegetation-removal permit through the county's Planning, Zoning & Building department, and wetland-adjacent work can involve the South Florida Water Management District. We walk the lot with you first, flag what needs a permit versus what doesn't, and keep the work inside the lines so you are not the one explaining a cleared wetland to the county later. For the full picture — which desk handles what, the acreage thresholds, gopher tortoises, ITID easements, burning, and a pre-clearing checklist — read our Palm Beach County land clearing permits & regulations guide.

Call 811 before anything digs. Every job starts with a free Sunshine State One Call (811) utility locate so the grapple and any grubbing stay clear of buried power, water, and cable — required by law, and it protects your property from a very expensive mistake.

Haul-off vs. mulch-in-place. Once the material is down you have two roads. Hauling everything to a disposal site leaves the cleanest lot but adds trailer trips and tipping fees. Chipping and mulching the debris in place is cheaper and leaves a layer that suppresses regrowth — a good fit for lots you are not building on immediately. For build-ready pads, most owners want the stumps grubbed and the debris hauled; for pasture, trails, or fire-break work, mulching in place usually wins. We price both so you can see the trade-off.

Wet season matters here. From roughly June through October, Loxahatchee lots hold water, and a track loader working saturated ground can rut a property badly. The Bobcat T740's tracks spread the machine's weight better than a wheeled skid-steer, but for heavy clearing we still watch the forecast and the standing water — sometimes the smartest move is to wait a dry week rather than tear up the ground. Dry-season clearing (November–May) is faster, cleaner, and easier on your lot.

Trees and stumps only? A single hazard tree, a stand of Brazilian pepper or a field of old stumps is a smaller job than a lot clearing. See tree and stump removal in Loxahatchee: the same T740 and grapple, pulling stumps whole, at the same $1,385/day with an operator.

Every clearing job is quoted free and in person. Tell us the address and roughly what is on the lot, and we will tell you honestly whether it is a half-day, a full day, or a multi-day job — and what the permit picture looks like — before any money changes hands. If your property is out here, our Loxahatchee & The Acreage land clearing page goes deeper: the five jobs an acreage lot actually asks for, what clearing runs on a standard 1.25-acre lot, the ITID swale and culvert access problem, and the local numbers worth having.

Hurricane Irma reached the Tampa Bay area in September 2017. In the weeks that followed, Randolph Scott Bell ran storm-debris cleanup through Tampa and Ybor City for Ceres Contractors (Ceres Environmental Services) — one of the largest disaster-debris contractors in the country. This is what the work looked like from inside the cab.

The equipment was the same shape as the equipment that shows up for a Palm Beach County lot today, only there were more of it: Isuzu NPR dump trucks pulling loaded dump trailers, and a Bobcat skid steer fitted with a root-and-brush grapple working downed palm fronds and storm debris curbside, house by house, through residential neighborhoods. Disaster-debris work is measured by the cubic yard and ticketed load by load — the Ceres ticket taped inside the windshield in the photo below reads 14 CY — City of Tampa.

Storm cleanup is the one service nobody shops for in advance. When it is needed, it is needed the same week, and the difference between an outfit that has done it and an outfit that added it to a list after the last hurricane shows up immediately — in whether the truck, trailer and machine arrive together, whether the debris is separated the way the haul-off site wants it, and whether the crew can keep a residential street passable while it works. Bell Land Services brings federal-scale disaster-debris experience to Palm Beach County lots — the same grapple, the same haul-off discipline, on a Loxahatchee or Acreage property instead of a Ybor City block. If a storm has left you with a lot you cannot walk through, that is the number to call. Planning ahead instead? Start with the land clearing cost guide or the Loxahatchee & The Acreage page.