Artificial turf in Atlantic Beach, FL, with the base inspected before it's covered.

Choose putting lines, pet access or everyday lawn space.

In an established Atlantic Beach yard, keep the patio routes and mature trees in the plan. A green near the house can be designed around useful putts and walking room. A pet area needs cleaning access and a routine as well as a finished edge.

Do not bury a base that still needs inspection.

Atlantic Beach’s published guidance calls for product and permeability documentation, installation details and inspection of the exposed base. Confirm the currently applicable requirements with the City before materials are ordered or work is covered.

Its guidance also addresses work around trees, the public right-of-way and preserving drainage. Identify those features on the property plan. Ask how the proposed complete system counts toward lot coverage, particularly when other hard surfaces already use much of the lot.

Atlantic Beach writes down how turf goes in, then checks the base.

Atlantic Beach publishes formal Artificial Turf Installation Guidelines, and they're specific (City of Atlantic Beach). The turf needs ASTM-certified permeability of at least 100 inches per hour. Under it goes a free-draining stone base at least 4 inches deep: 2 inches of #57 stone as the drainage layer, with 2 inches of #89 on top, or clean angular crushed rock with little or no fines.

The product must be free of hazardous materials and heavy metals. Turf can't go in the city right-of-way, and it can't change drainage patterns or push runoff onto a neighboring property.

Then the city checks the work. The stone base has to be inspected and approved before any turf covers it, so it stays open until the city signs off. Nothing gets buried before it's been seen.

Confirm how the proposed surface counts toward lot coverage.

Since Ordinance 90-19-238 in February 2019, homes in the city's conventional residential districts have been capped at 45% impervious cover, down from 50%, and swimming pools count toward it (News4Jax). Development that takes a lot past 35% impervious coverage also has to store its own stormwater on site, with a cumulative 400-square-foot exemption (Atlantic Beach code).

A patio, a driveway extension or a pool spends that allowance. Confirm the proposed turf system’s classification with the city before assuming that it leaves the impervious allowance unchanged. The city tightened the cap to deal with stormwater and flooding (Beaches Leader), and a base that drains is the whole point.

Since 19 May 2026, state law has also barred cities from banning turf on a single-family lot, or regulating it inconsistently with the state standard (Florida Statutes 125.572). Where the city's guidelines and the state's differ for your lot, ask the city in writing which it applies. Our impervious surface guide has the wider picture.

Atlantic Beach Country Club sits inside the city, under a special planned area ordinance the city adopted for it, and its own standards set a different number: a 65% impervious cap, not the citywide 45% above (Atlantic Beach Country Club ARB standards, restated 4/6/2023, first amendment adopted 8/27/26). Synthetic turf there is allowed only in a fully fenced back yard, and only after the ARB approves a detailed landscape and installation plan showing the turf area, the plantings and fencing around it, the irrigation plan, and how roof and downspout runoff is handled. Turf has to stay 18 inches off side and rear lot lines, fence lines and drainage easements, with shrubs at least 24 inches tall at planting filling that border; on a corner lot, turf can't run past the house sidewall on a street side.

The club's own base spec calls for 4 to 6 inches of crushed, compacted rock over weed fabric under the turf — a different number from the city's stone-base guidelines above, and both apply on an ABCC lot. The turf itself has to be polychromatic, no crumb rubber infill is allowed under any circumstance, and a pet area needs a cooling or odor-reducing infill instead. A maintenance agreement with a synthetic turf maintenance company has to stay active for as long as the turf is down, with a signed copy going in with the ARB submission. Once the ARB signs off, the City's Public Works Department still reviews and approves the turf and sub-base products before work starts. Confirm the current standards and your lot's numbers with the association before you plan a layout.

Under a live oak, the guidelines keep turf back from the trunk.

Old Atlantic Beach and Selva Marina sit under mature live oaks, with heavy shade and protected root zones, which is why the city's guidelines carry tree rules. Keep turf outside the drip line where you can. Under one, stay at least 18 to 24 inches from the trunk, keep the base no deeper than 3 inches, compact it lightly, and keep everything permeable to water and oxygen, with no pooling at the foot of the tree.

Discuss the ground, drainage and tree-root constraints at the actual work area. A turf surface alone does not establish a drainage solution or a lot-coverage exemption. Shade is also part of the layout discussion; read about turf and heat before choosing a play or pet area.