Can Protected Trees Be Removed

Cities enact their own tree protection ordinances, which are specific to that city. A long-time Palo Alto resident recently posted about his protected tree removal attempts to force his neighbor to remove Coast Redwood Trees whose roots were damaging his foundation. We reached out and talked to him for several hours. One of the points that came up was that the city department in charge of managing protected trees apparently enacted regulations to appease the local tree preservation group Canopy. After two years of court cases and numerous discussions, the owner of the damaged house was left with the understanding that the city expanded its protection to other tree types and sizes to appease Canopy, reducing the organization’s opposition to the removal of specific trees. Even if you believe you understand current removal regulations, don’t assume you can count on them.

The owner of the damaged home had an especially difficult battle because a local realtor indemnified the recent buyer of the property which the trees were on, telling him, “according to information I have, this won’t really be a problem” and that if it were a problem, he would pay for the removal of the trees. The real estate agent used both his in-house legal team and an outside legal time in an attempt to shield him from the fallout of his agreement with the buyer.

Palo Alto’s Tree Removal Process (Residential)

A “Tree Permit” must be obtained from the Urban Forestry Section of the Public Works Department. The application must include a report by a certified arborist.

The allowed reasons for removal are:

• The tree is dead, is hazardous, or constitutes a nuisance under PAMC 8.04.050
• The tree is a detriment to or is crowding an adjacent protected tree
• The tree is at risk for retrenchment or other tree decline coping processes or does not conform with right tree in the right place principles.
• The tree is impacting the foundation or eaves of a residence or any covered parking required under PAMC Title 18

If a new home is going to be built two other reasons are listed:

• The tree is so close to the proposed development that construction would result in the death of the tree, and there is no financially feasible design alternative that would permit preservation of the tree, where financially feasible means an alternative that preserves the tree unless retaining the tree would increase project cost by more than twice the reproduction cost of the tree or ten percent of the given project valuation, whichever is greater.
• Retention of one or more trees would result in reduction of the otherwise-permissible buildable area of the lot by more than twenty-five percent, and there is no financially feasible design alternative that would allow for preservation of the tree(s). For the purposes of this subsection (a)(2), a financially feasible design alternative means a design alternative that preserves the tree(s) and would not increase the project cost by more than twice the reproduction cost of the tree(s) or ten percent of the given project valuation, whichever is greater. All tree protection zones impacting buildable area are included in the reduction of buildable area calculation.

When the City receives the protected tree removal permit, they will send out a Protected Tree Removal Notice and send it out again when a decision is made. The notice must be posted on the property for 14 days before removal can begin.