Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Corpus Christi has no tree removal permit. The city's only tree rules live in the Landscaping section of the Unified Development Code, and that section opens by saying it applies to building permits. It is a planting requirement for new construction and for certain expansions, not a restriction on cutting down a tree you already have. If you are simply taking out a backyard tree with no construction involved, no city approval is needed. The tree preservation provision that does exist is a voluntary credit you can claim, not a mandate.
What's protected in Corpus Christi
- No category of tree on private property is protected from removal by the UDC. Trees only enter the picture as a landscaping requirement when a building permit is pulled.
- Trees in the public right-of-way and in city parks remain city property and are handled by the city rather than by the adjoining owner.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Ordinance
- City of Corpus Christi Unified Development Code Section 7.3 — Landscaping, in Article 7 (General Development Standards). The UDC was adopted May 10, 2011 by Ordinance No. 029048, repealing and replacing the 1961 Zoning Ordinance, the 1955 Platting Ordinance, the 1985 Manual of Driveway Design and Construction Standards and the 1994 Highway Beautification Ordinance.
Worth knowing
- The scope sentence is the answer. UDC 7.3.3 opens: "The landscaping requirements of this Section shall apply to building permits for the following:" and then lists new development and specified expansions of existing development. No building permit, no landscaping obligation.
- Existing properties developed on or before October 1, 2021 that do not meet current landscape standards are simply nonconforming, and that nonconformity may continue until a building permit is issued for qualifying work.
- For one- and two-family residential building permits, you may show proposed landscaping on a site plan instead of filing a full landscape plan signed by a Texas Registered Landscape Architect. Commercial applications need the sealed plan.
- Tree preservation in Corpus Christi is an incentive, not a rule. UDC 7.3.15 gives credit toward the required tree and palm count for trees preserved in the street yard or landscaping areas, and allows up to a 5 percent reduction in required parking spaces for preserving healthy listed trees.
- If you do preserve trees for credit, protection standards apply during construction: flag and fence the tree beyond the full branch spread, keep construction out of more than 50 percent of the critical root zone measured from the drip line to the trunk, and leave the root zone pervious and unpaved until the city signs off.
- A practical consequence worth knowing: because landscaping obligations attach when you pull a building permit, removing mature trees now can increase what you owe in new plantings if you later build or expand. The tree itself could have counted toward the requirement.
- Corpus Christi's Code of Ordinances Chapter 59 is only a one-line placeholder, "Zoning ordinance continued in force" — the operative land development rules are entirely in the UDC, which is published separately on encodePlus rather than in Municode.
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 the Property Maintenance Code in Code of Ordinances Chapter 13 requires abatement of a dead or hazardous tree on private property. It very likely addresses hazardous vegetation, but we did not read the adopted amendments and will not assume.
- — Whether UDC amendments adopted after August 2022 have been incorporated into the published edition. The encodePlus adoption page is dated December 2022 and its amendment list ends at Ordinance No. 032829, adopted August 16, 2022. Corpus Christi runs an annual UDC code cycle, so confirm currency with Development Services.
- — Fees, since no tree removal permit exists to charge for.