Do you need a permit?
It depends on the tree
Cary has no town-wide permit for cutting a tree in your own yard, but it does have a flat prohibition worth knowing about: "No champion tree may be disturbed or removed except as specifically allowed by this Ordinance." A champion tree is a pine of 40 caliper inches or more, any other upper-story tree of 32 caliper inches or more, or a dogwood, horticultural cherry, redbud, silverbell or serviceberry of 12 caliper inches or more. The rest of Cary's tree rules attach to buffers, streetscapes, floodplains and development plans, all of which are recorded and can sit on a residential lot.
Size threshold
Champion tree: "Any single tree other than a sweet gum that measures: (a) forty (40) caliper inches or greater for pines; (b) thirty-two (32) caliper inches or greater for all upper story trees other than pines; or twelve (12) caliper inches or greater for dogwood, horticultural cherry, redbud, silverbell, and serviceberry." A tree that meets the size but is dead, dying from disease, or has an abnormal form as determined by a certified arborist is not a champion tree. Large Champion Tree means an upper-story champion tree of 40 caliper inches and larger, or an understory champion tree of 15 caliper inches and larger.
What's protected in Cary
- Champion trees, which may not be disturbed or removed except as the Ordinance specifically allows
- Perimeter buffers, including urban transition buffers, which must remain undisturbed
- Streetscapes and street front landscaping
- Floodplains and designated permanent tree protection areas
- Specimen and significant trees inside required buffers, streetscapes and floodplains
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Ordinance
- Cary Land Development Ordinance Chapter 7, Section 7.2 - Landscaping, Buffering, Screening, and Tree Protection, in particular Sec. 7.2.5 Tree Protection, Tree Surveys, and Replacement Trees. Definitions are in LDO Chapter 12. The LDO is published by American Legal Publishing.
Worth knowing
- Cary measures champion trees by caliper inches, not DBH, and sweet gums are excluded from the definition entirely.
- A tree survey signed by a certified arborist is required with development plans and reuse or redevelopment plans that propose to disturb areas containing, or within the critical root zone of, champion trees, or specimen and significant trees inside required buffers, streetscapes and floodplains.
- "Adversely impacted" has a specific meaning here - 25 percent or more of a champion tree's critical root zone disturbed, either by the proposed work or within the three years before the application.
- Champion trees that end up on a residential lot must still be shown on plans so tree protection fencing can be designated during development and before the certificate of occupancy.
- Violations of Section 7.2 are subject to fines, replacement of damaged vegetation, stop-work orders, or a combination, under LDO Section 7.2.13 or Chapter 11.
- Cary Code Sec. 28-4 separately makes it the property owner's duty to keep hedges, shrubbery and overhanging limbs from obstructing free use of the sidewalk or street.
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.
- — The decisive question for a Cary homeowner: whether the champion tree prohibition in LDO 7.2.5(A)(2) applies to an established single-family lot with no development plan pending, or only within the development review process that the rest of Section 7.2 describes. The prohibition itself is written without a development qualifier. Call Planning and Development Services before you cut a tree that meets the champion size.
- — Whether Cary issues any form of tree removal permit or approval for a private lot, and if so what it costs.
- — The specific fine amounts under LDO Section 7.2.13 for removing a protected tree.
- — A direct phone number for Cary's urban forestry or landscape review staff. The town routes these questions through 311 or the main line.