Research
Do you need a permit to cut down your own tree?
23 city tree codes, each with its diameter trigger, species list, published fee, replacement rule, penalty and citation.
Written by HyreYard Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The finding
There is no national tree removal permit. Of 23 cities we read, 11 require a permit to remove a typical healthy tree in a private yard and 12 do not.
Triggers differ: Los Angeles protects named natives at 4 inches, Tampa non-exempt trees at 5, Austin every species at 19. In every city here, a street tree belongs to the city.
If the tree touches power lines, stay away and call the utility.
Power lines and fallen trees come first
If any part of the tree is in or near power lines, stay away and call the utility. Line-clearance trimming is a qualified trade (OSHA 1910.269 governs it where it applies). Never fell, climb or cut near a line. This page does not explain how to take a tree down.
A tree on a roof, a garage or a person is an emergency: call 911 if anyone is hurt or trapped, the utility if lines are involved, and a certified arborist for the tree. It is not a diameter-permit question. HyreYard does not cut or climb trees.
Why 23 cities and not the whole country?
People ask whether they need a permit to cut down a tree they own. “Check with your city” is true, but it is not an answer, so we read the codes.
We read 23 municipal codes and city arborist pages, plus fee schedules where a city publishes one, on September 5, 2026. 19 of them sit in HyreYard’s seven research states (Texas, Arizona, Washington, California, Oregon, Florida, North Carolina).
New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Denver were added because their codes are public. Orlando, Jacksonville, Tacoma, Eugene and Fort Worth were not finished in this pass and are listed as gaps, not filled from memory.
HyreYard analysis. 23 sourced rows are more useful than a “50-state” table nobody read.
This page is general information, not legal advice and not a permit. Local amendments override anything below. Confirm with the department that issues the permit before any work starts.
The words the codes actually use
- DBH / DSH
- Diameter at breast height, or at standard height: the trunk measured about 4.5 feet above grade. San Jose legislates in circumference (38 inches ≈ 12.1 inches diameter). Multi-stem rules differ: Austin adds half the lesser stems, San Antonio takes the largest plus 50% of the rest, Miami-Dade sums every trunk.
- Protected / regulated / ordinance-size
- The ordinary class that needs a permit. The diameter and the species list are the whole fight. “Protected” in Houston means a parkway or corridor tree. “Protected” in Austin means any species at 19 inches. The same English word is not the same legal object.
- Heritage / specimen / grand / landmark / Tier 1
- A heavier class on top of the ordinary one: listed species at a larger size, or a tree the council has designated. Removal can be prohibited, allowed only for hazard, or allowed only after a public hearing.
- Street tree / parkway / right-of-way
- The strip between curb and sidewalk, and anything else in the mapped public way. Every city in this table treats that tree as city property, even when the owner next to it pays for the water. The title survey decides, not the mower.
- Private-yard permit
- HyreYard’s working label, not a legal term: would the owner of an established house need a city permit to remove a typical healthy tree wholly on the lot, with no building permit and no street-tree issue? Recorded yes, no, or not verified.
The 23 cities, one by one
Houston, TX: no general yard permit*
Trigger: No general private-yard tree-removal permit for an established single-family lot. Protected trees are parkway, corridor, green-corridor and designated trees: not a typical backyard stem.
Fee: not published for private-yard removal (none required on the lots this page is about)
Replacement: New single-family houses must preserve or plant 1.5-inch-caliper trees before final inspection (Ch. 33-108). That is a construction condition, not a removal permit.
Penalty: Unlawful to remove a tree situated in whole or in substantial part within a street without the director’s written permission (Ch. 33-152). Dollar fine not published in the sections retrieved.
Dallas, TX: no general yard permit*
Trigger: No tree-removal permit for an occupied single-family or duplex lot smaller than two acres, unless the tree is in the right-of-way. On other lots, a building permit or tree-removal permit is required for a protected tree 8 inches caliper or larger.
Fee: not published on the forestry FAQ retrieved
Replacement: Inch-for-inch; replacement trees minimum 2-inch caliper (city forestry FAQ).
Penalty: not published in the FAQ or Art. X excerpts retrieved
Austin, TX: permit required
Trigger: Permit required to remove or impact a Protected tree: 19 inches or more DBH, all species, on residential and public property. 8-inch-and-larger trees are surveyed on commercial and multifamily site plans.
Fee: Dead/diseased/imminent-hazard permits: fee waived. Other tree-review fees are on the Tree Review & Inspection Fee Schedule (PDF); dollar amounts not restated here because the schedule is a separate instrument.
Replacement: Environmental Criteria Manual: Protected-tree mitigation is 100% of diameter inches removed; Heritage-tree mitigation is 300%. Some species are mitigation-exempt.
Penalty: Administrative mitigation under LDC 25-8 and misdemeanor citation under LDC 25-1-426. Dollar fine not published on the arborist page retrieved.
San Antonio, TX: permit required
Trigger: A tree permit is required before mitigating, removing or destroying Significant or Heritage trees, or conducting a regulated activity that may remove them (UDC § 35-477). Significant = 6 in DBH for most species (10 in for Ashe juniper, huisache, mesquite, Arizona ash, hackberry; 5 in for listed small species).
Fee: Tree Canopy Investment fee $15/lot residential, $25/acre commercial. Mitigation $200/inch for Significant trees and $200–$600/inch for Heritage trees (City Auditor, Tree Mitigation Program, FY 2024). Application fees: see current DSD fee schedule: not restated here.
Replacement: Up to 90% of Significant and Heritage trees may be mitigated rather than preserved. Single-family builders also plant two 1.5-inch-caliper native canopy trees per lot. Floodplain/ESA: 80% Significant, 100% Heritage.
Penalty: Enforced under UDC Art. 4, § 35-493. Dollar fine not published in the tree-ordinance excerpts retrieved.
Phoenix, AZ: no general yard permit*
Trigger: No citywide private-yard tree-removal permit was found in the documents retrieved. Native-plant salvage and inventory apply to development (native trees 4 in caliper or greater; native cacti 3 ft or taller). Street trees remain city property.
Fee: No city tree-removal fee published for an established residential lot. Arizona native-plant permit $7 one-time; saguaro tag $8; other native-plant tags $6 (AZDA fee table).
Replacement: On development sites, salvage in place or transplant. Not a backyard replacement table.
Penalty: State native-plant violations are enforced by the Arizona Department of Agriculture. City dollar fine for private-yard tree removal: not applicable on the evidence retrieved.
Scottsdale, AZ: no general yard permit*
Trigger: A native-plant permit is required to remove, relocate or destroy any plant on the protected list: but the city states permits will not be issued unless submitted with an approved or proposed development project. Single-family building-plan review requires a native-plant inventory.
Fee: not published on the Native Plant Ordinance page retrieved
Replacement: Leave in place where possible; otherwise salvage and replant on the project. Salvage loss over 20% must be explained in writing at post-inspection.
Penalty: not published on the page retrieved
Tucson, AZ: no general yard permit*
Trigger: No general private-yard tree-removal permit was found. Native Plant Preservation (UDC § 7.7) requires a plan, or an exception application, when a project would impact Protected Native Plants. Inventories use a 4-inch caliper for significant vegetation.
Fee: not published on the NPPO exception form retrieved
Replacement: Preserve in place, salvage, or mitigate under the approved Native Plant Preservation Plan. Exception available if a listed professional verifies the site has no viable Protected Native Plants.
Penalty: not published in the NPPO documents retrieved
Seattle, WA: permit required
Trigger: SMC 25.11 (effective July 30, 2023) regulates trees 6 in DSH and larger in four tiers. Removal of Tier 1–4 trees is generally prohibited when no development is proposed, with listed exemptions.
In Neighborhood Residential and similar zones, no more than two Tier 4 trees (6–12 in) may be removed in any three-year period without SDCI review; trees 12 in and larger need SDCI approval and must meet a removal allowance.
Fee: Varies by request type against the Land Use hourly rate: dead and invasive/nuisance, no LU fee; hazard, emergency, pest/pathogen and most others, 0.5 × LU hourly rate. Additional fees in environmentally critical areas and the shoreline district.
Replacement: Replacement required for Tiers 1–3 (native/culturally significant, climate-resilient). Payment in lieu: Tier 1–2 at $17.87 per square inch of trunk; Tier 3 a flat $2,833 (Director’s Rule on payment in lieu, 2023 figures as published).
Penalty: Civil penalty for failing to comply with a notice/decision/order up to $1,000 a day as amended; illegal removal valued under the Guide for Plant Appraisal, with possible trebling for construction-machinery damage (SMC 25.11.100).
Los Angeles, CA: permit required
Trigger: Permit from the Board of Public Works / StreetsLA Urban Forestry Division required to relocate or remove a protected tree or shrub on private property (LAMC §§ 46.00–46.06). Street trees: separate permit under §§ 62.162, 62.169. Ordinary non-native yard trees are not in the protected-tree class.
Fee: not published in the StreetsLA / DBS guidance retrieved
Replacement: Minimum 4:1 replacement on the same property. Trees replaced with trees from the protected list; shrubs with shrubs. Replacement: at least 15-gallon, 1 in diameter at 1 ft above the base, and no less than 7 ft tall.
Penalty: not published as a dollar figure in the StreetsLA / DBS guidance retrieved; removal without a permit is a code violation.
San Francisco, CA: no general yard permit*
Trigger: No general private-yard permit for trees more than 10 ft from the public right-of-way.
A Significant Tree (any portion of the trunk within 10 ft of the ROW, and either >12 in DBH or >20 ft tall or >15 ft canopy) is treated like a street tree: removal permit required. All street trees need a permit.
Fee: Street/Significant tree removal (Public Works, posted 2025): $499 for 1–3 trees (diseased/hazard/sidewalk damage); $1,004 for 1–3 construction-related; $1,337 for 4–9; $2,009 for 10 or more. Landmark-tree removal: administrative fee per the Director’s schedule, plus hearing costs.
Replacement: Replacement street tree, or an in-lieu fee, unless waived in writing. Landmark-tree removal can be conditioned on replacement value, administrative costs and a contribution to the Adopt-A-Tree Fund.
Penalty: Unlawful to injure or destroy a street tree, Significant Tree or Landmark Tree (Pub. Works Code § 808). Criminal, civil and administrative penalties apply to Landmark Trees; dollar amounts for ordinary Significant-Tree violations were not in the sections retrieved.
San Diego, CA: no general yard permit*
Trigger: No general private-yard tree-removal permit found. A Park and Recreation Director permit is required to remove, destroy, cut or trim any tree, palm, shrub or plant growing in a street or public highway (§ 62.0604). No-fee street-tree permits cover planting, trimming, removal and root pruning in the ROW after inspection.
Fee: No-fee street-tree permit (city tree-maintenance page). Private-yard: none found.
Replacement: Street-tree removal evaluated under Council Policy 200-5. Designated trees under 900-19: no removal permit unless a clear, imminent and significant public-safety threat after reasonable care.
Penalty: not published in the § 62.0604 excerpt retrieved
Sacramento, CA: permit required
Trigger: Permit required for regulated work on City Trees or Private Protected Trees (City Code Ch. 12.56).
Private Protected Trees: all native oaks (coast, interior, valley, blue), California sycamore and buckeye at 12 in DSH; any species at 32 in DSH on a lot with an existing single-family or duplex dwelling; any species at 24 in DSH on undeveloped, commercial, industrial or apartment property.
Fee: $50 application fee to cover arborist costs (Tree Permit Application). Appeals of posted removals: $298.
Replacement: Replacement plan may be required with the application. Ratios not restated on the permits page retrieved.
Penalty: Criminal sanctions, civil actions and administrative penalties up to $25,000 for each day the violation continues (application form citing Ch. 12.56).
San Jose, CA: permit required
Trigger: Permit to remove an ordinance-size tree on a single-family or duplex lot: 38 in circumference (about 12.1 in diameter) at 4.5 ft, including the sum of multi-trunk circumferences. On multifamily, commercial and industrial lots, a permit is required to remove a tree of any size. Street trees and Heritage Trees always need a permit.
Fee: not published as a dollar figure on the Tree Removal Permits page retrieved
Replacement: Native 38 in+ circumference: 5:1; non-native 4:1; orchard 3:1; 15-gallon minimum. Smaller native 19–38 in: 3:1. Single-family and two-dwelling properties may mitigate at 1:1. After-the-fact: double the replacement ratios.
Penalty: Heritage-tree illegal prune or removal: citation and fine up to $10,000, increasing for repeats up to $30,000 (Ch. 13.28 / Heritage Trees page).
Portland, OR: permit required
Trigger: Title 11: street trees of any size; city trees 3 in or more; private trees 12 in or more, unless an exemption in § 11.40.030 applies. Overlay zones and plan districts can drop the private-tree trigger to 6 in (Table 40-1).
Fee: Non-development Removal & Replanting application: no charge as of July 1, 2025 (PCEF-funded). Replanting-waiver application $50 (rising to $55 on the July 10, 2026 PP&D schedule). Development fee-in-lieu of preservation: $1,888 per private tree 12–<20 in; $472 per DBH inch for trees ≥20 in.
Replacement: Replanting or a waiver. Development that preserves less than the code’s fraction of 12–20 in trees, and of 20 in+ trees, pays the fee-in-lieu.
Penalty: Civil penalty $1,000 per tree per day. Restoration for a removed tree $472/DBH inch; removed Heritage Tree $944/DBH inch (FY 2025–26 Title 11 fee schedule). Enforcement penalty $250/month.
Miami, FL: permit required
Trigger: City Code Ch. 17: a tree permit is required for tree activity on any public or private property unless an exemption in § 17-11 applies.
Pruning more than 25% of canopy, or pruning not in accordance with ANSI A-300, also needs a permit (with a certified-arborist letter).
No published DBH floor in the sections retrieved: the permit is for “a tree,” not “a tree of X inches.”
Fee: not published in the Ch. 17 excerpts retrieved
Replacement: Permit criteria in the tree-protection article require that the tree unreasonably restrict a permitted use, or similar listed grounds, before removal is approved. Replacement conditions are attached to the permit; ratios not in the excerpts retrieved.
Penalty: not published as a dollar figure in the Ch. 17 excerpts retrieved
Miami-Dade County, FL: permit required
Trigger: A tree-removal/relocation permit is required to remove or relocate any tree in the county not specifically exempt under Ch. 24.
A “tree” is a woody or fibrous perennial with a minimum 3 in DBH or an overall height of 12 ft or more.
Exemption: trees in the yard of an existing single-family residence that are not in a Natural Forest Community and are not specimen trees (§ 24-49(4)(a)). That exemption does not cover ROW trees.
Fee: Application and initial inspection fees are non-refundable; after-the-fact costs double. Dollar amounts are on the Tree Permit Fee Schedule PDF, not restated here.
Replacement: Planting Mitigation Guidelines; final inspection required to close the permit. Permit valid one year.
Penalty: Uniform Civil Violation Notice under Ch. 8CC after failure to file an after-the-fact application. After-the-fact application and per-tree fees cost double.
Citation: Miami-Dade County Code § 24-49; Tree Removal or Relocation Permits (RER)
Tampa, FL: permit required
Trigger: Permit required to cut down, remove, relocate, damage or abuse any protected tree (Ch. 27, Div. 4). Protected tree = any mitigation tree; any mangrove; any cypress; and any non-exempt species 5 in DBH or greater. Exempt: listed Category I/II invasives and camphor under the conditions in § 27-284.1.2.
Fee: Triple permit fee for work that violates the division without irreparable damage. Other application fees: not published in the code excerpts retrieved.
Replacement: Mitigation by crown-footprint conversion to nursery caliper/gallon equivalents (Table 284.4.1-A), paid to the planning-district tree trust or planted. At least 60% of replacement trees native. Grand trees: 100% retention on any land-use type unless a hazardous/dangerous finding is made.
Penalty: Removal of a protected tree without a permit is an irreparable or irreversible violation. Grand-tree irreparable damage goes to a code-enforcement special magistrate; mitigation plus three 3-inch-caliper replacements per affected grand tree.
Charlotte, NC: no general yard permit*
Trigger: On an established lot with no development, the homeowner permit is the Non-Development Heritage Tree Permit: not a general size-threshold permit.
Heritage tree = any tree native to North Carolina (USDA NRCS Plants Database) with a DBH of 30 in or greater.
Street trees and city-property trees of any planted size / naturally occurring ≥3 in DBH in the ROW are separately protected.
Fee: Heritage tree (non-development) mitigation $500/tree, reducible by planting extra mitigation trees ($250 credit each) or by preserving a specimen tree. Development heritage mitigation $1,500/tree.
Replacement: Plant a minimum of one mitigation tree, or preserve one specimen tree. Options on the non-development checklist: pay $500; plant three trees total; plant two and pay $250; or preserve a specimen tree.
Penalty: Civil penalties in UDO Zoning Administration Manual / Charlotte Tree Manual § 4.1. Dollar amounts not on the heritage-tree checklist retrieved.
Raleigh, NC: no general yard permit*
Trigger: No general private-yard tree-removal permit was found. Tree Conservation Areas (UDO Art. 9.1) apply to development sites: currently two acres and larger since May 2005, with a 2022 authorization to study 1–2 acre lots that had not been adopted as a citywide backyard rule on the retrieval date.
A Tree Impact Permit is required for any work on a City Tree (ROW or city-owned/controlled property).
Fee: not published on the Tree Impact Permit page retrieved
Replacement: Inside a recorded Tree Conservation Area, replacement is 2-inch-caliper shade trees per 200 sq ft disturbed, or 10 caliper inches of new shade trees when a priority-area tree is certified hazardous/unhealthy/dead.
Penalty: Tree-disturbing activity in a recorded conservation area is prohibited except as listed in UDO § 9.1.6. Dollar fine not published on the pages retrieved.
Citation: Raleigh UDO Art. 9.1 (Tree Conservation), §§ 9.1.3–9.1.6; Urban Forestry Tree Impact Permit page
New York, NY: no general yard permit*
Trigger: NYC Parks does not issue permits for work on private-property trees. A Tree Work Permit is required to perform work on or within 50 ft of a tree under city jurisdiction (street trees and park trees). Some front-yard trees are still in the mapped right-of-way: title survey, not the stoop, decides.
Fee: Replacement fee under 56 RCNY Ch. 5: at least one caliper-inch of replacement per caliper-inch removed, priced at the average planting price for a 3-inch-caliper street tree from the prior fiscal year’s Parks planting contracts. Parks will also accept the applicant planting the replacements.
Replacement: As above; never less than 1:1 caliper inches. Species, condition and location ratings from the NYC Tree Valuation Protocol adjust the count.
Penalty: Admin. Code § 18-129 / 56 RCNY § 1-04(b)(1): most violations a misdemeanor, fine up to $1,000 and/or 90 days. Removing a tree without a permit or damaging trees: fine up to $15,000 and/or imprisonment up to one year.
Citation: NYC Parks Tree Work Permit; 56 RCNY Ch. 5; Admin. Code § 18-129; NYC 311 Tree Work Permit article
Chicago, IL: no general yard permit*
Trigger: A building permit is not required to install, alter or remove a tree, plant or other vegetation on private property (MCC § 14A-4-402, Department of Buildings FAQ).
A forestry permit from Streets and Sanitation is required to plant, prune, maintain or remove a parkway / public-way tree (MCC Ch. 10-32). Parkway trees are city property.
Fee: Forestry permit fee under § 10-32-090; dollar amount not in the table-of-contents retrieval. Private-yard: none.
Replacement: City forestry replaces parkway trees on its own program. No private-yard replacement table.
Penalty: Causing injury to a public tree or shrub is a Ch. 10-32 offense. Dollar fine not in the excerpt retrieved.
Atlanta, GA: permit required
Trigger: Permit from the city arborist required to destroy, remove or impact a regulated tree on private property: any tree other than a pine at 6 in DBH or greater, and pines at 12 in DBH or greater (Ch. 158, Art. II, as recodified by Ord. 2025-19, adopted June 24, 2025).
Fallen trees: no permit; document with photographs. Arborist inspection and issuance of the inspection report: no charge.
Fee: No charge for the homeowner arborist inspection. Recompense for a healthy tree permitted for removal was historically $100 per tree + $30 per DBH inch; the June 2025 update described a new formula of $140 per DBH inch, adjusted annually to the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell CPI.
Confirm the in-force fee with the Arborist Division: both figures appear in city documents spanning 2003–2025.
Replacement: Replanting credited against recompense at 1.25 × actual planted size (2025 fact sheet). Maximum recompense per acre is zoned (R-1 $35,000; R-4 $15,000; etc. on the 2025 table). Invasive removals: permit required, no recompense.
Penalty: When the number of trees is known: first violation no less than $500 plus illegal recompense; subsequent $1,000. When count unknown: assumed 1,000 inches DBH per acre (60 trees of 16.67 in) and a $60,000/acre fine, prorated. Illegally destroyed trees must also be replaced or recompensed.
Denver, CO: no general yard permit*
Trigger: No permit to prune or, in the majority of cases, to remove a tree on private property. A free permit from the Office of the City Forester is required to plant or remove a street tree (D.R.M.C. § 57-18: adjoining owner is responsible for street-tree care).
During demolition or construction of a dwelling in a Residential Zone District, established trees in the primary and side-street setbacks must be preserved unless the City Forester issues a removal permit (Zoning Code § 10.5.3).
Fee: Street-tree planting and removal permits are free. Tree-service companies must be licensed under Ch. 57 Div. IV to prune or remove public or private trees for hire.
Replacement: Street-tree replacement on the approved list. Setback-tree removal during construction: only with a City Forester permit under §§ 57-20(b) and 57-25.
Penalty: Unlawful to engage in the business of cutting, trimming, pruning or removing public or private trees without a tree-service license. Improper ROW pruning can be deemed irreparable damage with reimbursement of the tree’s value.
Municipal codes and city arborist pages retrieved September 5, 2026. “No general yard permit*” means no general private-yard permit was found for an established house; a street-tree, construction-setback, native-plant-on-development or recorded-conservation-area rule can still apply. Fees marked “not published” were not in the document we retrieved: they are not $0.
Each row is one city’s rule as of the retrieval date, not a metro. Unincorporated county ordinances were not compiled. Florida Stat. § 163.045 and Arizona Rev. Stat. § 3-904 sit on top of the Florida and Arizona rows and are unpacked below.
Heritage, specimen, grand and landmark classes
| Jurisdiction | Heritage / specimen / grand / landmark class |
|---|---|
| Houston, TX | A tree may be designated only on application by or joined by the owner (Ch. 33-104). Not an automatic size class. |
| Dallas, TX | No separate heritage class in the FAQ retrieved. Historic/significant overlays can still apply by district. |
| Austin, TX | Heritage tree = 24 in DBH or more of Texas ash, bald cypress, American elm, cedar elm, Texas madrone, bigtooth maple, all oaks, pecan, Arizona walnut or eastern black walnut. Removal prohibited except as provided in § 25-8-641. Variances for 30 in+ Heritage trees go through a public process. |
| San Antonio, TX | Heritage = 24 in DBH or more for most species; 12 in for listed small species (Texas persimmon, redbud, mountain laurel, condalia, possumhaw, hawthorn). 100% preservation on each platted lot. |
| Phoenix, AZ | No city heritage-tree class found in the documents retrieved. |
| Scottsdale, AZ | No separate heritage-tree class on the Native Plant Ordinance page retrieved. ESL overlay is a different plant list. |
| Tucson, AZ | No heritage-tree class found. WASH (Ch. 29 Art. VIII) is a watercourse overlay, not a heritage list. |
| Seattle, WA | Tier 1 = Heritage Trees designated under Title 15. Generally may not be removed unless hazardous or an emergency action. |
| Los Angeles, CA | No separate heritage class in LAMC § 46.00. Department of Recreation and Parks has its own heritage/special-habitat policy on park land. |
| San Francisco, CA | Landmark Trees designated by the Board of Supervisors under Pub. Works Code § 810. Highest protection; public hearing; generally removable only if they constitute a hazard tree under § 802(o). |
| San Diego, CA | Optional. Council Policy 900-19: public trees 8 in caliper at 4 ft may be evaluated for designation. Private trees enter only if the owner nominates them. Not an automatic size class. |
| Sacramento, CA | The current Ch. 12.56 category is “Private Protected Tree,” which the city says includes trees formerly called Heritage Trees. Older Ch. 12.64 definitions (100 in circumference any species; 36 in circumference for listed natives) still appear in some project reports; confirm against current 12.56 before relying on the old numbers. |
| San Jose, CA | Individually designated by City Council for history, girth, height, species or unique quality: any size. Illegal to prune or remove without consulting the City Arborist and obtaining a permit. |
| Portland, OR | Heritage Trees are a separate designation. Removal is outside the ordinary Type A path; restoration fees are doubled. |
| Miami, FL | No separate heritage class in the Ch. 17 excerpts retrieved. Miami-Dade specimen-tree covenants can still bind a city lot. |
| Miami-Dade County, FL | Specimen tree at 18 in DBH is the heavy class. Specimen-tree covenants in favor of the county survive even inside municipalities. |
| Tampa, FL | Grand tree: listed species, DBH of at least 32 in, condition rating A/B/C, plus Florida Champion/Challenger trees. Specimen tree: 24 in DBH of listed identity/size/character. Grand-tree removal needs board/commission or natural-resources-coordinator approval under Table 284.2.5. Pruning any limb of a grand tree also needs a permit. |
| Charlotte, NC | Heritage as above (30 in native). Specimen tree (for mitigation credit): large hardwoods/softwoods in good or better condition at 20 in+ DBH, or smaller understory (dogwood, redbud, sourwood, persimmon) at 10 in+ DBH, as determined by the city. |
| Raleigh, NC | Heritage trees may be established as optional tree-conservation area after primary areas are set, with double credit for a fully protected critical root zone if the tree rates “Good” or higher by an ISA arborist. Not an automatic backyard class. |
| New York, NY | No Parks heritage class for private trees. Landmark-preservation properties can trigger a separate LPC review for trees on designated sites. |
| Chicago, IL | No citywide private-property heritage class found in Ch. 10-32 or the Buildings FAQ. |
| Atlanta, GA | Heritage Tree is a designated class (notable historic value, age, size or historic association) under the recodified Art. II. Specimen language in the 2025 draft used 30 in DBH for large hardwoods/softwoods in fair or better condition. Confirm designation status with the Arborist Division; it is not automatic at 30 in on every lot. |
| Denver, CO | No private-property heritage class found. “Protected tree” in the permit form refers to public or construction-setback trees. |
The heritage / specimen / grand / landmark / Tier 1 designation, as each city writes it, retrieved September 5, 2026. Several cities (Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, Raleigh, New York, Chicago, Denver) have no automatic private-yard heritage class in the documents we read: they still protect street trees, and some allow voluntary designation.
What do the tree codes actually require?
Source fact. 11 of 23 jurisdictions require a city permit for a typical private-yard removal. 12 do not, on the documents retrieved. 14 publish a numeric diameter (or circumference converted to diameter) that a homeowner can measure.
HyreYard calculation. 14 rows publish a number a homeowner can put a tape on, but they are not one scale. Los Angeles’s 4 inches covers named native oaks, walnuts, sycamores, bays and two shrubs. Tampa’s 5 inches covers non-exempt species. Austin’s 19 inches covers every species.
Sacramento’s 12-inch native list and 32-inch any-species trigger are two rules in one code. Charlotte’s 30 inches is a heritage class on North Carolina natives; an ordinary Charlotte tree needs no permit. Miami-Dade’s 3 inches defines “a tree” for the county permit, with a single-family yard exemption for non-specimen trees.
HyreYard analysis. The difference is not strict versus lax; it is what each city regulates. Austin regulates a size. Los Angeles regulates native species. Charlotte regulates a 30-inch native. Houston regulates the parkway. San Francisco regulates distance from the sidewalk. Scottsdale regulates native plants, but only when a development permit is in play.
Six kinds of tree rule, not one scale from easy to hard
HyreYard classified each row by the legal object the city is actually protecting. The classification is ours. The citations are the cities’.
Size threshold on private lots. Austin (19 in, all species), Portland (12 in private; 3 in city trees; any size street trees), Tampa (5 in, non-exempt), Atlanta (6 in hardwood, 12 in pine), Seattle (6 in DSH, four tiers).
Sacramento (12 in natives; 32 in any species on a single-family or duplex lot) and San Jose (38 in circumference ≈ 12.1 in on single-family or duplex; any size on commercial). Miami’s Chapter 17 publishes no diameter floor in the sections we retrieved: the permit is for “a tree.”
Named species plus a size. Los Angeles is the clean case: four native trees and two native shrubs at 4 inches cumulative, 4:1 replacement, and a backyard eucalyptus is not in the class.
Sacramento’s native-oak/sycamore/buckeye list at 12 inches sits inside a size regime. San Antonio’s small-species list at 5 inches is a modifier on a size regime.
Size on some lots, exemption on others. Dallas: no permit on an occupied single-family or duplex lot under two acres unless the tree is in the right-of-way; 8-inch protected trees on other lots, minus an unprotected-species list.
Miami-Dade: a 3-inch “tree” definition and an 18-inch specimen class, with a single-family yard exemption that does not cover specimen trees or the right-of-way.
Heritage / specimen overlay; ordinary trees unregulated. Charlotte’s non-development homeowner permit is the 30-inch NC-native Heritage Tree. A 28-inch willow oak on a finished lot is not that object. Development sites have a separate canopy regime under UDO Article 20.
Triggered by development or land clearing, not a backyard saw. Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tucson run native-plant programs that apply when a building or grading permit is in play, not when a homeowner removes a volunteer mesquite.
Raleigh’s Tree Conservation Areas are recorded on development plats of two acres or more; they are easements, not a backyard permit. Denver’s setback-tree rule applies once a residential demolition permit is filed.
Street / parkway / right-of-way trees only. Houston, San Francisco (except Significant Trees within 10 ft of the right-of-way), San Diego, New York, Chicago and Denver: the private yard is largely the owner’s and the parkway is the city’s.
San Francisco is the hybrid: a 12-inch tree 9 feet from the sidewalk is a Significant Tree; the same tree 11 feet back is not.
Why do Texas cities give different answers?
Austin and San Antonio
Austin. The City Arborist page, retrieved September 5, 2026, says a Protected tree is 19 inches or more at 4.5 feet, all species, and needs a permit to remove on residential property. A Heritage tree is 24 inches or more of a listed species; removal is prohibited except under § 25-8-641.
Mitigation in Austin’s Environmental Criteria Manual is 100% of diameter inches for Protected trees and 300% for Heritage trees.
San Antonio. UDC §§ 35-477 and 35-523 require a tree permit before removing a Significant tree (6 inches; 5 inches on its small-species list) or a Heritage tree (24 inches).
The city auditor’s FY 2024 report gives mitigation fees of $200 per inch for Significant trees and $200–$600 per inch for Heritage trees. Heritage trees are to be preserved on each platted lot.
Houston and Dallas
Houston. Chapter 33, Article V, defines a protected tree as a corridor, designated, green-corridor or parkway tree. Article VI makes it unlawful to remove a tree wholly or substantially within a street.
Article V’s building-site landscape rules do not apply to existing single-family lots, so the documents we read impose no backyard diameter permit on an established house.
Dallas Forestry’s own FAQ states that for single-family homes under two acres, a tree-removal permit is not required unless the tree is in the right-of-way. Article X still regulates 8-inch protected trees on other lots, with an unprotected-species list.
HyreYard analysis. There is no single “Texas tree law” to look up: four cities, four different objects.
Two state overlays that sit on top of the city rows
Florida Stat. § 163.045
Geography: Statewide, on qualifying single-family detached residential property.
A local government may not require notice, application, approval, permit, fee or mitigation for pruning, trimming or removal of a tree on residential property if the owner possesses documentation from an ISA-certified arborist or a Florida-licensed landscape architect, following ISA Best Management Practices: Tree Risk Assessment (2nd ed. 2017), that the tree poses an unacceptable risk: meaning removal is the only practical way to bring the risk below moderate.
The local government also may not require replanting of a tree removed under this section. Does not apply to mangroves under the delegated mangrove program.
Limit: “Residential property” means a single-family detached building on a lot actively used for single-family residential purposes. Townhouses, condos, multifamily and commercial lots stay under the local ordinance. Healthy trees stay under the local ordinance. Documentation must exist at the time of removal.
Arizona Revised Statutes § 3-904
Geography: Statewide protected native plants.
A private landowner may destroy protected native plants on the land without an AZDA collection permit if the plants are not transported off the land or offered for sale, and if the owner notifies the Department 20, 30 or 60 days beforehand depending on acreage.
Individually owned residential property of 10 acres or less where initial construction has already occurred is exempt from that notice.
Moving a saguaro, palo verde or other listed native off the lot still needs a Department permit, tags and seals.
Limit: This is a plant-salvage statute, not a municipal tree ordinance. Cities (Scottsdale, Tucson, Phoenix development sites) can still require a native-plant program when a building permit is in play. HOAs are a private contract.
Does Florida’s tree law override the city?
Since the 2022 amendment (SB 518), a Florida local government may not require notice, a permit, a fee or mitigation to prune or remove a tree on a single-family detached lot if the owner has a signed ISA tree risk assessment.
The assessment must follow ISA Best Management Practices: Tree Risk Assessment (2nd ed., 2017), come from an ISA-certified arborist or Florida-licensed landscape architect, and conclude that removal is the only practical way to bring risk below moderate. The city may not require replanting. Mangroves are excluded.
HyreYard analysis. The statute is a narrow exception, not a repeal. Townhouses, condos, vacant lots, commercial property and healthy trees stay under Tampa Chapter 27, Miami Chapter 17, Miami-Dade Chapter 24 and the other local codes.
Tampa’s construction-services page tells owners to keep the assessment: it is how the city tells a lawful § 163.045 removal from an illegal one afterward.
Recommendation: if you are on a qualifying Florida lot and a certified arborist has written that the tree is an unacceptable risk, keep that document. If the tree is healthy, or the building is not a detached single-family house, read the city row.
The right-of-way is not your yard
In every city in this table, a tree in the public right-of-way is a different legal object from a tree on the lot. New York Parks prosecutes street-tree removal (up to $15,000 and/or a year). Chicago parkway trees are city property under Chapter 10-32.
Denver makes the abutting owner care for the street tree and still requires a free City Forester permit to remove it. San Francisco’s Significant Tree is a private tree within 10 feet of that line.
Recommendation: before anyone cuts, look at the title survey: not the edge of the mowed grass. If the trunk is in the mapped right-of-way, the city row’s “No*” does not apply.
What to do before anyone cuts
The distance around the trunk divided by π is DBH. San Jose wants circumference. Austin and San Antonio count multi-stem trunks differently, so measure the way your code says.
Los Angeles, Austin (Heritage), Sacramento (natives at 12 in), San Antonio (small-species and juniper/mesquite exceptions) and Charlotte (NC natives at 30 in) all make species the difference between “permit” and “not that ordinance.”
Street tree, parkway, Significant Tree within 10 feet of the sidewalk, Tree Conservation Area on a Raleigh plat, Denver setback tree on a demo permit. The backyard rule does not cover those.
Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tucson and San Antonio’s development path, plus every commercial site plan, are a different permit from “I want this one tree gone.”
A city “No*” is not an HOA “yes.” Covenants are a private contract. See HOA landscaping preemption.
Stay away and call the utility. This is not a permit checklist item; it ends the checklist.
Secondary roundups can disagree with each other and with the codes. The citation is the document. HyreYard does not cut trees or pull permits.
How we compiled the table
For an established house, with no building permit in play, does this city require a permit to remove a typical healthy tree wholly on the private lot? Separate questions: street trees, heritage class, development-triggered native-plant rules, state overlays.
Municipal code (Municode, American Legal, city code host) and the city’s own urban-forestry or arborist page. Fee schedules where the city publishes one.
State statutes only for the two overlays that actually preempt or sit beside the local rule (Fla. Stat. § 163.045; Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 3-904).
No blogs as the authority for a diameter, a fee or a penalty.
Roster-state major cities first, then New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Denver. 23 rows. A city whose code we could not finish reading is a gap, not a guessed row.
The private-yard answer is yes, no, or not verified. Fees, penalties and replacement ratios missing from the retrieved document are written “not published,” not zero. Heritage is a separate column so a 30-inch designation is not merged into a 6-inch permit.
Counts, the 3–30 inch range, and the regime classification are HyreYard calculations on the table. They are not something any city stated.
Limitations
There is no national tree ordinance. Unincorporated counties, smaller suburbs and the cities listed as gaps are unpublished. A Dallas row is not a Collin County row.
Atlanta recodified Article II in June 2025. Seattle’s tier system dates to July 30, 2023. Portland dropped many non-development permit fees on July 1, 2025 and is rewriting Title 11 in 2026. A retrieval date is not a promise the section number will last.
Several cities publish dollar fees in a PDF that is not the ordinance. Where we did not open that PDF, the cell says “not published,” even if a fee exists.
Historic-preservation commissions, wildlife districts, ESL overlays, WASH riparian rules and recorded conservation easements can be stricter than the citywide tree article. They are flagged where we saw them, not exhaustively mapped.
No cutting, rigging or felling instructions. Power lines mean stay away and call the utility. HyreYard does not perform tree work.
Cities we did not finish
Orlando, FL. Not read at the municipal code in this pass. Florida Stat. § 163.045 still applies on qualifying single-family detached lots.
Jacksonville, FL. Not read. Duval County / City of Jacksonville has a separate tree code historically built around “grand trees”; unpublished here rather than summarised from memory.
Tacoma, WA. Not read. Seattle’s SMC 25.11 is not Tacoma’s code.
Eugene, OR. Not read. Portland Title 11 is not Eugene’s code.
Fort Worth, TX. Not read. Dallas Art. X and Austin Ch. 25-8 are not Fort Worth’s code.
unincorporated counties. County tree ordinances (Hillsborough, Orange, Wake, Maricopa, King, etc.) were not compiled. A city row is not a metro row.
A gap is a finding. We do not fill it from unsourced roundups.
Questions
Do I need a permit to remove a tree on my own property?
What is DBH, and why do cities disagree about an inch?
What is a heritage tree?
Can I remove a tree in the strip between the sidewalk and the street?
Does Florida’s tree law let me skip the city permit?
What about Arizona native plants: saguaros, palo verde, mesquite?
The tree is in the power lines. Does a permit matter?
Does HyreYard cut trees or pull tree permits?
Written and audited by
HyreYard Research Desk
Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a landscaping company. We read the statute, the municipal code, the water-district rule or the federal soil file ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. This desk is new.
The counts below are what we can already stand behind, and every one of them is counted from the studies on this site.
- 255
- source documents cited, each linked
- 112
- government (.gov) domains among them
- 258
- citations carrying a retrieval date
- 10
- research studies published
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. A rule comes from the statute, ordinance, board or agency that issued it, cited by section, with the URL and the retrieval date. We do not cite a blog that cites a code.
- Coverage is a number. A table titled to fifty states has fifty sourced rows. A table of cities is titled to the cities we actually read. Gaps are published as gaps.
- Company counts stay inside seven states. Texas, Arizona, Washington, California, Oregon, Florida and North Carolina. Texas is the largest roster on the weakest evidence, a self-reported NAICS sales-tax permit, because Texas licenses no landscaper. National claims rest on federal or state agency data, never on our counts.
- Fact, calculation, analysis and recommendation stay labeled. "According to…" is a source. "HyreYard analyzed… and calculated…" is ours. "This suggests…" is interpretation. We do not present our reading as something the source stated.
- We do not landscape, irrigate, plant, cut trees or pull permits, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favorable mention. Nobody buys a position on this site.
Data as of September 5, 2026. Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
Sources & retrieval dates
The permit is not the bid
A city row tells you whether a permit is required. It does not price the crane, the haul or the stump. Type the rate from a written quote into the tree removal calculator. HyreYard does not cut trees.
This page is general information compiled from municipal codes and city arborist pages retrieved September 5, 2026. It is not legal advice, not a permit, and not a recommendation to remove any tree.
Municipal amendments, recorded easements, historic districts, HOAs and utility easements can all be stricter than the citywide article. HyreYard does not perform landscaping or tree work and takes no payment for placement or a favorable mention.