Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Akron's tree chapter protects "city trees," a term the code defines as "any tree, including street trees, within a park, preserve, or other property owned by the City or right-of-way thereof." No person may alter a city tree. Nothing in the chapter requires a permit to take down a tree standing in your own yard — but the same chapter makes it unlawful to let a hazardous tree stand on private property.
What's protected in Akron
- City trees — any tree in a park, preserve or other city-owned property, or in the right-of-way of one, including street trees
- Trees and vegetation inside a riparian setback buffer along a regulated stream or wetland (Akron Code Chapter 155)
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Penalties
- Akron Code 101.99: "Whoever violates any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree."
- Ordinance
- Akron Code of Ordinances Title 9, Chapter 101 — Trees and Shrubs (definitions at 101.01, prohibitions at 101.04, city tree removal at 101.11, penalty at 101.99). Title 15, Chapter 155 — Riparian Setbacks.
Worth knowing
- Section 101.04 lists the prohibitions plainly: "(C) No person shall alter any city tree. (D) No person shall maintain a nuisance tree." A "nuisance tree" is defined as a tree on private property that, by decay, damage, age or disease, creates a risk of harm to people or property, as determined by the Director of Public Service.
- If you want a live city tree in front of your house removed for your own convenience — a new driveway, for instance — Akron Code 101.11 lets the city remove it and charge you both the removal cost and the appraised value of the tree, secured by a lien. The Director may instead permit you to remove it yourself, at your own expense and liability, with a deposit paid in advance.
- The Public Works Bureau's Forestry group handles "removal and trimming of street tree in the city right-of-way and throughout the parks." Report a tree problem through 3-1-1 or (330) 375-2311.
- Akron has a Tree Commission that hears appeals of tree notices and orders. Requests must be filed with the Director of Public Service within seven days of service, with a non-refundable $15 deposit.
- If your lot touches a stream or wetland, Chapter 155 restricts "alteration" inside the riparian setback. Alteration there includes mass removal of vegetation, but it expressly does not include removing trees that are dead, dying, diseased, noxious or hazardous, removing non-native trees, or selective removal of saplings under two inches in diameter.
What we could not confirm
We would rather tell you what we don't know than guess. Call the office below to confirm these before you cut.
- — Any diameter threshold on private property. Akron's only size language is a planting standard: a newly planted street tree must be at least two inches in trunk diameter measured six inches above ground.
- — Fees for a city tree removal permit, and the appraisal method used to value a removed city tree.
- — Whether the Akron Zoning Code (Chapter 153) requires tree retention or landscaping on a developed single-family lot.
- — Whether removing a single healthy tree inside a riparian setback buffer, with no development proposed, triggers Chapter 155 review. The chapter is written around plan and permit applications and defines alteration in terms of mass removal, so call before you cut if your yard runs down to a creek.