Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
No permit, but Davenport is the Iowa city where the rule that matters is about who you hire rather than what you cut. The city has a full Tree Ordinance and a City Arborist, and it does license tree work - Section 8.14.240 makes it unlawful to "carry on or engage in, as its principal business activity, the business of cutting and trimming of trees without first having procured a license." That licence costs $50 a year and requires a $10,000 bond and liability insurance. It binds the contractor, not you. Nothing requires a homeowner to get a permit to remove a tree from their own yard, and the zoning chapter that protects trees over six inches says in its own applicability clause that it does not apply to you: a landscape plan "is not required for single-family and two-family dwellings." What you do owe is maintenance - branches eight feet clear of a sidewalk and fourteen feet clear of a street.
Size threshold
None for a single-family or two-family lot. The six-inch figure people find belongs to development review, not to yards. Section 17.11.100.A: "Existing trees over six inches in diameter at breast height and in good condition should be preserved to the maximum extent practicable." Its Subsection B limits it: "These standards apply to new multi-family and townhouse residential and non-residential (including mixed-use) development. Trees that are dead or dying, or species deemed to be undesirable by the City, or found to be a threat to public safety, are exempt from these provisions."
What's protected in Davenport
- Trees on City property and in the City right-of-way. Section 8.14.270.A: "Licensee shall not remove, cut or trim trees located on City property or in the City right-of-way without prior authorization of the City arborist."
- Trees on private property where health or safety is at stake - Section 8.14.230.A gives the arborist authority over "planting, maintenance, pruning and removal of trees and shrubs on City property or in the City right-of-way, and where indicated on private property, to ensure health or safety or to preserve the symmetry of public places."
- Trees over six inches DBH on new multi-family, townhouse and non-residential development sites, under the Section 17.11.100 preservation standards and the construction-protection rules that go with them.
How to apply in Davenport
- 1
For a tree on your own single-family or two-family lot there is no application and no fee.
- 2
Check that whoever you hire holds a current Davenport tree-work licence. It is the one thing the city actually polices here, and Section 8.14.270.C says that where the arborist finds a licensee working without one, the arborist "shall consult law enforcement to stop work," with a municipal infraction issued and the possibility of a simple misdemeanour charge and arrest.
- 3
Confirm whether the tree is actually yours before cutting. If it stands in the City right-of-way, only a licensee with the City Arborist's prior authorisation may touch it.
- 4
Agree in advance who hauls the debris. Section 8.14.270.D requires each licensee to "promptly clean up and legally dispose of all tree trunks, limbs, branches, twigs or brush debris" generated by the work.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- No fee for a homeowner, because no permit exists. The tree-work licence a contractor must hold is $50 per year (Section 8.14.250), and Section 8.14.260 requires a $10,000 bond plus public liability insurance of at least $50,000 per person, $100,000 per accident and $25,000 property damage.
- Penalties
- Violations are handled as municipal infractions under Section 8.14.360, and unlicensed tree work "may also be charged and adjudicated as a simple misdemeanor including the arrest of the offending party" (Section 8.14.270.C). The city may also refuse, suspend or revoke a licence, with appeals under ch. 2.86.
- Ordinance
- Davenport Municipal Code Title 8 (Health and Safety), ch. 8.14 (Neighborhood Enhancement - Environmental Improvement), art. IV - "Tree Ordinance of the City of Davenport, Iowa" (Section 8.14.190), Sections 8.14.190 to 8.14.360, most recently amended by Ord. 2019-58. Tree preservation on development sites is Title 17 (Zoning) ch. 17.11 (Landscape), Section 17.11.100, with the single-family exemption at Section 17.11.010.A. Street trees in new subdivisions are Section 16.24.105 (Ord. 2001-477 Section 2).
Worth knowing
- The definition of removal is deliberately broad and covers killing a tree slowly. Section 8.14.200.K: "REMOVAL - Is the actual removal or causing the effective removal through damaging, poisoning or other direct or indirect actions resulting in the death of a tree." That matters because it applies to the prohibition on touching public trees.
- Davenport defines a tree by height, not diameter. Section 8.14.200.F: trees are "woody vegetation, usually growing with a single stem and a height over 10 feet," while shrubs are multi-stemmed and under 10 feet.
- The clearance duty applies to your own trees and to the public trees on the right-of-way abutting your lot: branches must not hang lower than eight feet over a sidewalk or fourteen feet over a highway, street or alley (Section 8.14.280.A.2 and B.2). You are also responsible for hazardous conditions from dead or diseased limbs.
- If you are building rather than just removing, the six-inch preservation standard brings real construction constraints - no cut or fill over four inches deep inside the drip line without a qualified arborist approving it, and temporary barriers at least four feet high, no closer than six feet from the trunk or half the drip line, whichever is greater.
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 City Arborist in practice requires notice before a homeowner removes a large private tree under the Section 8.14.230.A "where indicated on private property" authority. The text grants authority to ensure health or safety but sets out no application, threshold or process for ordinary private removal.
- — The current holder of the City Arborist position and any direct forestry phone line. The city publishes a Public Works number; no separate forestry contact was retrievable.
- — The street address of Public Works. The department page gives the city and ZIP but the street line was not retrievable.
Sources
- Davenport Municipal Code Ttl 8 Ch 14 Art IV - Tree Ordinance (eCode360)
- Davenport Municipal Code Ttl 17 Ch 11 - Landscape, incl. 17.11.010 single-family exemption and 17.11.100 Tree preservation (eCode360)
- City of Davenport - City Code (links to eCode360)
- City of Davenport - Public Works Department (contact)