Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Brockton has no tree ordinance. A full sweep of the Revised Ordinances and the zoning appendix turns up no tree-protection chapter, no tree-removal permit, and no heritage or significant-tree designation — every tree reference is either development landscaping, street-excavation protection, damage to city property, or yard-waste collection. A tree in your own yard, away from wetlands and away from the public way, can come down without city involvement.
What's protected in Brockton
- Public shade trees — any tree within the public way or on its boundaries, under M.G.L. c.87. Removal requires the Tree Warden and a posted public hearing.
- City-owned and ornamental trees, under Brockton Revised Ordinances section 14-14, which bars injuring, defacing or destroying "any tree, building, fence, post or other thing set, erected or made for the use or ornament of the city."
- Trees within 100 feet of a wetland or in a riverfront area — the Conservation Commission states that cutting trees or shrubs, or removing groundcover plants, requires permits inside wetland resource areas and their buffer zones.
- Trees on a development site, where zoning sections 27-24 and 27-38 impose planting and screening obligations, and section 27-20 bars trees or hedges that obstruct the corner-lot sight triangle.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Penalties
- There is no penalty for removing a tree from your own property, because there is no ordinance to violate. Public shade trees carry the state penalty under M.G.L. c.87 s.6: "forfeiture of not more than five hundred dollars to the use of the city or town." Cutting someone else's tree is separately punishable under M.G.L. c.87 s.11 and exposes you to treble damages under M.G.L. c.242 s.7.
- Ordinance
- No Brockton ordinance governs private tree removal. Related provisions: Brockton Revised Ordinances section 14-14 (injury to city property), Chapter 20 Article II (Street Opening By-Law, sections 20-39 through 20-49), section 20-21 (names a DPW forestry superintendent), and zoning Appendix C sections 27-20, 27-24, 27-36 and 27-38. State law: M.G.L. c.87.
Worth knowing
- This is a verified absence of regulation rather than an affirmative city statement. Brockton publishes no tree-removal page at all, so there is nothing to quote saying "no permit required" — but there is also nothing in the code to require one.
- The most common way a Brockton homeowner gets caught out is the question of whose tree it is. M.G.L. c.87 s.1 presumes a tree of disputed location is public. Have DPW confirm the layout line before cutting anything near the sidewalk.
- The real permit risk here is wetlands, not trees. Brockton has substantial brook and wetland systems and a 100-foot buffer covers a lot of residential back yards. Call the Conservation Agent, Kyle Holden, at 508-580-7167 before clearing a low, wet or brook-adjacent yard.
- Brockton has no named, publicly listed Tree Warden even though M.G.L. c.87 requires every municipality to have one. The function sits in DPW, where section 20-21 names a forestry superintendent, but the city website never uses the words "tree warden."
- Brockton's SeeClickFix service-request system has no tree category, so downed-limb and hazard-tree reports have to go to DPW by phone.
- As of late July the DPW Commissioner and office staff relocated to 39 Montauk Rd.; Engineering remains at City Hall.
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.
- — Brockton's Tree Warden by name. No city page identifies the officeholder.
- — Conservation Commission filing fees for an RDA, Abbreviated Notice of Intent or Notice of Intent, and the street-opening application fee and deposit — section 20-44 delegates the schedule to the DPW Commissioner rather than fixing amounts.
- — Whether Brockton has adopted a local wetlands bylaw stricter than the state Wetlands Protection Act. No such chapter appears in the codified ordinances, but non-codified Conservation Commission regulations may exist.
- — Whether the DPW forestry division has a direct phone line separate from the Highway Division number.
- — Any emergency or hazard-tree procedure for a storm-damaged tree threatening a structure. Brockton publishes none.