Do you need a permit?
It depends on the tree
Two different Broken Arrow rules can catch a tree, and neither of them lives in a chapter called Trees. The one people miss is in the drainage chapter: an earth change permit covers "the clearing or removal of more than six healthy trees," and while the operative section and the exemption list both tie that trigger to the regulatory floodplain, the definition itself says "on a parcel" with no such limit. The one people run into is Section 21-9: the tree in the street or alley out front may be removed "only with the permission of the city manager." A tree in your own yard, outside the floodplain, needs neither.
Size threshold
No diameter threshold anywhere - Broken Arrow counts trees, not inches. The earth change trigger is "more than six healthy trees." Caliper figures appear only in zoning Division 4-3 and only for development sites: Table 4-3-4-1 gives preservation credit at 2 to 3 inches, 4 to 16 inches, 17 to 30 inches and larger than 30 inches, and Table 4-3-4-2 sets replacement rates in the same bands. Those tables govern trees that earned landscaping credit, not trees in a back yard.
What's protected in Broken Arrow
- Trees on a street or alley. Section 21-9: "It shall be unlawful for any person to injure any tree or shrubbery growing on a street or alley in the city. This section shall not prohibit the lawful and proper care and removal of such trees and; provided that such removal shall be done only with the permission of the city manager." (The dangling "and" is in the code as printed.)
- More than six healthy trees on a parcel, under the earth change permit. Section 13-17 defines Earth change to "also include the clearing or removal of more than six healthy trees on a parcel, or activities commonly called clearing and grubbing within the boundaries of the regulatory floodplain," and Section 13-18(b) says "No land shall hereafter be developed, redeveloped, graded, regraded, excavated, filled, bermed, diked, or cleared of its trees and undergrowth without full compliance with the terms of this article."
- Required and credited landscape trees on a development site. Zoning Section 4-3-4.B.4 requires replacement "when any required tree or any tree that was shown on a landscape plan and that was granted landscaping credit under this section is removed," at rates rising to four replacement trees for one over 30 inches caliper.
- Trees on public property generally. Zoning Section 4-3-2.B.5.b: "It shall be unlawful for any person, unless commissioned by the City, to cut or break any branch of any tree or shrub or injure in any way the bark of such tree or shrub growing on public property."
How to apply in Broken Arrow
- 1
These steps are for the earth change permit. Section 13-21(a): file a written application with the city manager "in such form and content as the city manager shall establish," with the fee.
- 2
Include the legal owner's name and address, a vicinity sketch with a legal description and any boundary survey the city engineer requires.
- 3
Include site drawings showing each area to be excavated, filled, graded or leveled, cut and fill depths, present and future points of surface water entry and discharge, and every temporary or permanent erosion control device.
- 4
Include your plans for controlling on-site erosion and off-site sedimentation during all phases of construction, and your plan for receiving and discharging surface water with an anticipated completion date for drainage improvements.
- 5
Section 13-18(g): "All plans prepared and submitted by any person proposing development shall be prepared under the supervision of a registered professional engineer registered in the State of Oklahoma."
- 6
Section 13-20: the permit expires one year after issuance if substantial progress has not been made, and ongoing projects are reviewed every two years.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- Not published in the code. Section 13-21(a) says an earth change application "shall be accompanied by the payment of a permit fee, the amount of which shall be recommended by the city manager and approved by the City Council of the City of Broken Arrow" - the ordinance sets no number. No fee is stated for the Section 21-9 city manager permission.
- Penalties
- Not stated in Chapter 13 or Chapter 21 for tree removal specifically. Section 21-8(b) makes failure to trim after five days' notice "an offense against the city," with each day a separate offense. Chapter 15 declares "Trees or tree limbs damaged or dead to the extent that a tree, limb or tree part could fall" a nuisance, which brings the City's abatement and cost-recovery machinery into play.
- Ordinance
- Broken Arrow Code Chapter 13, Article II (Earth Changes), Sections 13-16 through 13-26, from Ord. No. 736, adopted March 20, 1978, with the tree-clearing language added by Ord. No. 1995, Sections 1 through 3, adopted May 20, 1996. Chapter 21 (Streets and Sidewalks), Sections 21-8 and 21-9, from Code 1970 Sections 19-1, 19-2, 19-3 and 19-18 and Code 1977. Tree preservation credits and replacement rates are in Appendix A (Zoning Ordinance), Chapter 4, Division 4-3 (Landscaping, Screening, and Tree Preservation). Code codified through Ordinance No. 3907, adopted March 24, 2026 (Supp. No. 43).
Worth knowing
- Who legally issues what: earth change permits come from the Community Development Department (zoning Section 4-3-4.B.1 names it expressly, while Section 13-19(a) says the permit is obtained "from the city manager"), with the city engineer approving site plans and design standards under Section 13-21(a). Street and alley tree removal runs through the city manager under Section 21-9, and the trimming notice under Section 21-8(b) comes from "the city manager or director of public works." Appeals and variances from the earth change article go to the Broken Arrow Floodplain Appeal Board.
- The floodplain question is a real ambiguity and this file does not resolve it. Section 13-19(a) reads: "Unless specifically exempt, an earth change permit shall be required prior to the clearing of land, including the removal of more than six healthy trees within the regulatory floodplain or performing any other work constituting an earth change under this chapter." Section 13-23(5) exempts "The removal of trees outside the channel of any floodway, or outside the mapped boundaries of any floodplain, as to tree removal only." Read together those two point to a floodplain-only trigger. The Section 13-17 definition, read alone, does not. Call Community Development before clearing.
- Other earth change exemptions at Section 13-23: bona fide agricultural and farming operations that are the principal use of the tract; home gardening; cut or fill of less than 12 inches at any one point; and "Any tract of land of record whose size does not exceed three acres" - but the last two do not apply inside the regulatory flood area.
- The landscaping division skips ordinary houses. Section 4-3-1.B.3 exempts "Individual single-family and two-family dwellings on separate lots, where such residential use is the primary use on the lot" and "New single-family detached and two-family subdivisions with four or fewer lots and four or fewer dwellings."
- The trimming duty is on you. Section 21-8(a) requires the owner of any premises abutting a street to trim trees "growing in the parking, between the sidewalk and the roadway," to at least ten feet over a roadway or alley and eight feet over a sidewalk.
- Broken Arrow bans one species from required landscape areas outright: Section 4-3-2.B.1, "Under no circumstances may Bradford Pears be planted within required landscape areas." That is a planting rule, not a removal rule.
- Broken Arrow licenses no tree services. Chapter 7 (Business Regulations and Licenses) contains no arborist or tree service license.
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.
- — A direct phone number, email and street address for Broken Arrow Community Development. brokenarrowok.gov returned HTTP 403 to every automated fetch attempted for this entry, including through a text proxy, so no contact detail is asserted here.
- — The dollar amount of the earth change permit fee. Section 13-21(a) delegates it to a Council-approved schedule that is not in the code.
- — Whether the city manager's Section 21-9 permission is a written permit, and whether it costs anything.
- — Exactly which parcels are inside the regulatory floodplain. Broken Arrow references mapped floodplain and floodway boundaries but the maps were not consulted for this entry.
- — Whether an ordinary private tree outside the floodplain truly needs nothing. The code is silent for that case rather than affirmatively permissive.
Sources
- Broken Arrow Code, ch. 13 - Grading and Earth Changes (Municode)
- Broken Arrow Code, ch. 21 - Streets and Sidewalks, Secs. 21-8 and 21-9 (Municode)
- Broken Arrow Zoning Ordinance, ch. 4 Division 4-3 - Landscaping, Screening, and Tree Preservation (Municode)
- Broken Arrow Code of Ordinances landing page - codified-through banner (Municode)