City of Tallahassee Tree Removal — Public vs. Private

Tallahassee is a canopy city with a canopy city’s rulebook. Roughly half the questions homeowners here have about a tree are not really about the tree — they are about jurisdiction. Who owns it, who pays, who has to file paperwork, and what happens if you cut first and ask later. This page sorts that out.

The short version: who removes which tree

The City of Tallahassee is responsible for trees in three zones: the public right-of-way (the strip of ground between the sidewalk and the street curb on city-maintained roads), city parks, and city-owned property. If a tree in one of those zones is dead, hazardous, or already down, the City’s Urban Forestry section handles it at no cost to the homeowner. That is the genuinely no-charge removal you can count on in this town, and it is worth knowing about.

Everything else is yours. Trees inside the fence line, on the lawn, in the back yard, arching over your driveway — all homeowner responsibility, even when the branches drop into the street. And on top of paying for it, you generally need the City’s permission before you remove a regulated tree, under municipal code §5-83.

How to tell if a tree is city or private

Stand on the sidewalk in front of your house and look at the grass strip between the walk and the curb. That strip is public right-of-way, and the trees in it belong to the City. Everything on the house side of the sidewalk is yours. If your street has no sidewalk, the right-of-way typically reaches somewhere in the range of five to seven feet in from the back of the curb — which means a tree that feels like it is in your front yard may not legally be. Your property survey, or the Leon County GIS parcel maps, will give you the actual line rather than a guess.

When you need a §5-83 permit

The City requires a removal permit for any regulated tree. Broadly, that means a healthy hardwood at 8 inches DBH (diameter at breast height) or larger, plus certain species at their own thresholds — live oak and southern magnolia from around 8 inches, bald cypress similarly, longleaf pine at a larger diameter. The authoritative species-and-size list lives with the City’s Growth Management Department, and it is the list that governs, not this page.

Layered on top of that: if your street is one of the designated Canopy Road Protection Zones, an additional layer of protection applies within the zone, and the bar for touching anything is higher. Outside the city limits, Leon County’s Chapter 10 environmental management rules govern instead, and they are not identical. The arborist you are matched with should be able to tell you which regime you are actually under before quoting.

When a permit is not required

• Dead trees, once confirmed dead by an ISA-certified arborist.
• Invasive species — Chinese tallow, mimosa, camphor, Bradford pear. The City is not defending these; it would rather they came out. See Chinese tallow, mimosa, camphor and Bradford pear removal.
• Trees under the size threshold for their species.
• Documented hazard trees, under the statutory exception below.

The Florida Statute §163.045 hazard exception

This is the provision worth understanding. Under FS §163.045, a homeowner on residential property may remove a tree that has been documented as a hazard — without going through the local permit process first — provided the hazard is supported by written documentation from an ISA-certified arborist or a Florida-licensed landscape architect. The documentation is the whole ballgame. Photographs, a written determination, and the credential behind it. Cut first without the paperwork and you are simply an unpermitted removal with a good story.

Storm damage follows similar logic: an emergency removal after a tree comes down on a structure does not wait for a permit, but the condition needs to be documented promptly, with timestamped photographs taken before anything is cut. That is also exactly what your insurance carrier will want. See emergency tree service and the insurance coverage guide.

What happens if you skip the permit

Removing a regulated tree without authorization can draw a fine that scales with the size and species of what came down, plus mitigation — commonly replacement planting assessed on a caliper-inch basis, or a payment in lieu. The City does enforce, and in a neighborhood full of people who moved here for the canopy, neighbors do call. It is a bad trade. The permit is the cheap part.

The scenarios that actually come up

How getting matched works

Permit fees and timelines

Permit fees are set by the City, not by any contractor, and they scale with the scope — a single regulated tree on a residential lot sits at the modest end; a commercial site with multiple regulated trees is a different matter. Mitigation, where it applies, is generally assessed per caliper inch removed. Review typically takes on the order of a couple of weeks rather than days, so build it into your timeline if you are working around a construction schedule.

Because fee schedules and species lists get revised, treat the City’s Growth Management Department as the authority on current numbers rather than any page on the internet — including this one. A good arborist will pull the current schedule as part of scoping your job.

Frequently asked questions

Related Tallahassee tree services

This page is informational. The City of Tallahassee Growth Management Department is the authoritative source for §5-83 ordinance interpretation, current species lists, fees and permit decisions; Leon County governs outside the city limits. Florida Statute §163.045 governs hazard-tree removal documentation.