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- Land Clearing Services in Keystone Heights, FL
- Lot Clearing for New Homes in Keystone Heights and Melrose
- Brush Clearing and Forestry Mulching Near Keystone Heights
- How Much Does Land Clearing Cost in Keystone Heights?
- Permits, Gopher Tortoises and Drainage Before You Clear in Keystone Heights
- Land Clearing Services Across Keystone Heights and Melrose
- Land Clearing FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions from Property Owners
Land Clearing Services in Keystone Heights, FL
Whitfield Clearing & Grading provides land clearing, forestry mulching, lot clearing, brush clearing, stump grinding and site prep across the Keystone Heights area and Melrose. Forestry mulching is a land clearing method that uses specialized equipment to grind trees and brush where they stand. The head turns standing vegetation into mulch, left as ground cover.
- Full clearing to dirt, stumps out.
- Mulching: palmetto, turkey oak and sand pine mulched in place.
- Lots: the house footprint only.
- Brush removal: overgrown land opened to the fence.
- Tree removal and storm cleanup.
- Stumps: $4.25 per inch of diameter, $160 minimum per stump.
- Site prep and grading: staked pad, compacted fill.
We are a land clearing company serving residential and commercial properties in Keystone Heights and the surrounding area. Property clearing, land improvement, site work ahead of your builder: same walk, same price. Services throughout the county and the Jacksonville area. I do not pour concrete, drill wells, set septic or demolish houses. I know people who do.
Lot Clearing for New Homes in Keystone Heights and Melrose
Clay County issued 1,108 unincorporated single-family permits in 2025 (Census Building Permits Survey). The city is not reported on its own, so the county count is the proxy. Most lots here sit off SR 21 and SR 100, one to ten acres of scrub. Residential land clearing here means a staked footprint, not a bare parcel. Site preparation starts with marking the house, drive and septic field. We clear that. Longleaf of any size stays unless it sits inside the string line.
The house pad is quoted per pad: rough grade and 12 inches of compacted fill above crown of road, three passes with the roller. On a lot off SR 100 last winter the pad finished at 14 inches and proof-rolled clean. Professional clearing on a platted lot is mostly restraint. Send me the site plan.
Brush Clearing and Forestry Mulching Near Keystone Heights
Scrub and sandhill mulch at $1,100 to 1,700 an acre, the lowest rate on my list. Sugar sand carries the machine, and scrub oak and rosemary have no root mat worth fighting. Palmetto on the lower lots toward Starke is the exception: the mat under it needs the head set low on a second pass. Stems over 8 inches get cut, then we grind the stump.
A professional land clearing service in Keystone Heights should know sandhill from flatwoods before it quotes. Live oaks stay. The mulch layer, 2 to 4 inches, slows the scrub oak coming back. Selective clearing around oaks you keep is priced by the acre too. We can remove brush along a fence line. Scrub lots overgrow slower than flatwoods, but they overgrow. Mulching will make your property walkable in a day. Areas with dense palmetto in the low spots get quoted after the walk, not before.
How Much Does Land Clearing Cost in Keystone Heights?
Scrub and sandhill clearing in Keystone Heights runs $1,100 to 1,700 an acre, palmetto flatwoods on the low lots $1,400 to 2,300, and full clearing to dirt with stumps out $2,800 to 5,000 an acre. Land clearing costs: the total depends on the size of the tract, the density and how much has to leave the site. Two items go in the written price first: the FWC gopher tortoise survey, $400 to 900 by a licensed agent, and the wet-season extra day on flatwoods, June to September. Scrub skips that day.
- Skid steer forestry mulcher: $2,700 a day, transport included.
- Dedicated 300-hp mulcher: $4,100 a day plus transport, for large acreage clearing.
- Half-acre lot: one day, $2,700. Quarter-acre infill: $1,900 flat.
- Haul-off: $650 to 1,200 per 10-yard load.
The local case: a 6-acre scrub tract in Keystone Heights, sandhill on Trail Ridge, two days, $7,200. A flatwoods comparison: 3 acres off CR 218 in Middleburg, two days, $5,400, two burrows flagged. Most land clearing projects here run one to two days. No surprises on the invoice. Pick a walk-through slot on the calendar or call (904) 406-7990 for a free on-site estimate.
Permits, Gopher Tortoises and Drainage Before You Clear in Keystone Heights
Three rules cover nearly every lot in the Keystone Heights area. First, the Clay County Land Development Code: a land clearing permit over 1 acre or ahead of a building permit, and tree protection at 8 inches DBH. Second, the FWC gopher tortoise rule. Trail Ridge is tortoise country. Survey inside 90 days of clearing, no work within 25 feet of a burrow, and a relocation permit if burrows are found.
Third, SJRWMD. Clearing alone does not trigger an Environmental Resource Permit. Filling a wet spot or changing drainage does. The cypress on the sinkhole lakes stays out of the footprint. Camp Blanding sits on the same ridge. Sunshine 811 gets the call before any excavation so the gas pipeline and power lines are marked. I pull the county paperwork.
Land Clearing Services Across Keystone Heights and Melrose
ZIP 32656 covers Keystone Heights and the lake lots. Our crews run land clearing services across northeast Florida. Nearby: Melrose on SR 26, Lake Geneva, Starke on US 301, and the Camp Blanding edge along SR 16. Keystone Heights, FL and the surrounding area sits inside the included-transport zone. Search land clearing Keystone Heights and you get Gainesville outfits; we are closer. For the Jacksonville metro, start at the land clearing hub.
Land Clearing FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions from Property Owners
How much does land clearing cost in Keystone Heights, FL in 2026?
Scrub and sandhill run $1,100 to 1,700 an acre; palmetto flatwoods $1,400 to 2,300; full clearing to dirt $2,800 to 5,000. The 6-acre scrub tract we cleared here came to $7,200 over two days. Site conditions move the number, so the written price follows the site visit.
Do you clear commercial sites here?
Yes. Commercial land clearing services cover full site clearing for a pad on SR 21 and commercial development tracts that need large acreage clearing. Commercial properties in Keystone Heights get the same tree rules, written price and crew; commercial clearing is not a different trade.
Do I need a permit to burn cleared brush?
Yes, and on a platted lot you will not get it. Any pile needs a Florida Forest Service burn authorization, rarely issued in town. Mulched in place is the cheaper way to clear land here anyway: the chips stay as ground cover and nothing smolders for three days.
How do you check for pipelines and power lines before clearing?
Sunshine 811 gets the call two business days before we dig or grind. They mark gas, power and fiber. Depending on site layout I also walk the line for private runs: well lines, septic laterals. Those are not on the 811 map.
What does the land clearing process look like here, and how soon can you start?
Site visit, written price, tortoise survey, county permit, machine. You and I walk the property; the written price goes out that evening. The survey and permit run two to three weeks. Dry season, November to May, we start inside two weeks after that. The landscape beds get their stumps ground last. Pick a walk-through slot on the calendar or call (904) 406-7990.
