Orlando to Allow Earlier Sunday Alcohol Sales and Front Yard Gardens

The City of Orlando City Council approved two new ordinances today.

One will allow alcohol sales at restaurant, bars and liquor stores earlier on Sunday and the other makes modifications to the City’s landscape code to allow for front yard gardens.

Currently you can buy alcohol starting at noon on Sunday within the City.

The new law moves it to 9:00 a.m. This is still two hours later than every other day of the week.

The new alcohol ordinance will go into effect on January 1.

The City also update the City of Orlando landscape codes.

In addition to the front yard garden changes the ordinances also deals with water saving measures and increasing the tree canopy of Orlando.

Here’s a summary of the new rules that were approved today:

• Limits to the amount of water intensive landscaping by limiting turf, vegetable gardens and annuals up to a maximum of 60% of the pervious areas of the applicable front or street side yard for one and two family development sites.
• Maintenance standards for the proper cultivation of landscaping to ensure dead, diseased or overgrown plants are removed.
• Creates a landscaping calculator that credits sustainable landscaping design features for Multi-Family, Commercial and Industrial properties.
• Requires water conservation measures for irrigation systems.
• Sets up standards for street trees and tree plantings on private property.
• Updates the City’s bufferyard standards to reflect our increasingly urban environment, by concentrating on landscaping screening rather than separation of uses.
• Preserves water quality by providing aquatic plantings and swales along water bodies to capture nutrients, water and soil.
• Provides for healthy spacing of trees and planting materials, including setbacks from overhead electric lines and incorporating tree wind resistance into the selection of street trees.
• Updates the pre-approved list of trees and plants [Tree List] [Plant List] (including the removal of certain invasive exotics), and provides for alternative materials to be submitted to the Zoning Official for approval.

The  landscape ordinance will go into effect in April. This is to allow for phasing in and for all existing front yard gardens to come into compliance.