Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Brooklyn Park writes its private tree rules as duties, not permits. City Code section 97.40 governs private tree planting and maintenance and requires no permit to remove a tree on your own property. It requires close to the opposite: you must remove dead, diseased or dangerous trees that menace the public. Street trees are a different matter. The code says no street tree may be removed without permission from the City Tree Inspector.
What's protected in Brooklyn Park
- Street trees. "No street tree shall be removed without permission from the City Tree Inspector."
- Trees in the public right-of-way and on public grounds, which the city plants, prunes, maintains and removes
- Ash trees growing within boulevards, which the city treats as public trees
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Ordinance
- Brooklyn Park City Code Chapter 97 (Grass, Weed, and Tree Regulations): 97.30 City Tree Inspector, 97.35 public tree planting and maintenance, 97.40 private tree planting and maintenance, 97.45 shade tree disease control, 97.50 nuisances, 97.55 removal and abatement.
Worth knowing
- Section 97.40(C) is titled "Dead or damaged tree removal on private property" and says only that "The city shall have the right to cause the removal of any dead, damaged, or diseased tree or part there of as specified in section 97.50 (Nuisances)." There is no application step for the owner anywhere in the section.
- Section 97.40(B) does impose real duties: prune branches overhanging a street or sidewalk to leave eight feet of clearance above the sidewalk and 19 feet above the street, and "remove all dead, diseased, or dangerous trees, plants, and shrubs or broken or decayed limbs that constitute a menace to the safety of the public."
- Trees and landscaping must also meet the Clearview Triangle requirements of section 152.1007 and keep a five-foot clear zone around fire hydrants.
- If your private tree encroaches into the right-of-way, the city may trim it back itself to meet those clearances.
- The city says ash trees growing within boulevards are public trees; it treats healthy ones roughly every two years or removes them at no cost to the resident as their condition declines. Ash outside the right-of-way is the property owner's responsibility.
- Brooklyn Park runs a "Remove and Releaf" lottery giving eligible residents free dead-ash removal and stump grinding. Ask the city when the next application window opens.
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.
- — Whether Brooklyn Park's zoning and subdivision code (Title XV, Chapter 152) requires tree preservation, replacement or a tree inventory during development. We verified Chapter 97 only.
- — Any size threshold or "significant tree" definition. Chapter 97 contains none.
- — Penalties for removing a street tree without the Tree Inspector's permission.
- — Whether tree care contractors must be licensed in Brooklyn Park.