Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Detroit's tree ordinance is a public tree ordinance. The permit clause, Section 16-3-5(a), makes it unlawful to "prune, cut, molest, break, deface, destroy, spray, repair or do surgical work upon any tree... upon the public highways or places of the City... without first obtaining a permit from the General Services Department," and there is no counterpart for private property and no size threshold anywhere in the code. Detroit's own permit index lists no tree permit of any kind. The city says it plainly in its own words: "the City has always been responsible for maintaining the trees between the sidewalk and streets," while "residents... handle the dead, damaged, or diseased trees on their private property." The one place the code reaches your yard runs the other way — Section 16-3-93 declares a diseased or dangerous tree on private property a public nuisance you may not maintain. Two situations change the answer: a local historic district, and the strip between your sidewalk and the curb, which Detroit defines as public highway.
Size threshold
None for permit purposes. Every diameter figure in the code is about planting or landscaping credits, not removal. The only definitional size in the tree article is height-based, at Section 16-3-1: "Trees do not mean shrubs which are less than 15 feet tall." The one DBH figure a Detroit homeowner may actually hit is in the Historic District Commission's published Historic Design Guidelines for Site Elements, and it applies only inside a local historic district: "Historic-aged trees are considered those that are 8" or more DBH (diameter at breast height or 4.5 ft above grade) and not considered a nuisance tree, a danger to a historic element or is itself an invasive species."
What's protected in Detroit
- Trees in the public highway, which Detroit defines expansively at Section 16-3-1: "Public highways means all of the land lying between the property lines on either side of the public streets, boulevards, and alleys of the City." The tree lawn you mow is public highway.
- Shade and ornamental trees in streets and public squares. Section 16-3-4: "No person shall destroy, cut, injure or in any way deface any shade or ornamental tree standing in any street, avenue, public space or square in the City."
- Trees in a "Place," meaning "any park, parkway, park lot, grass plot, golf course, playground, recreation area, open place or square or other property under the control of the General Services Department."
- Diseased or dangerous trees on private property, which are regulated as a nuisance to be abated rather than preserved. Section 16-3-91: "Dangerous tree means any tree or part thereof which is in such a condition as would make it likely to fall and thereby injure persons or damage property," and "Diseased tree means any tree infected with Dutch Elm Disease."
- Resources in a local historic district. Section 21-2-2 defines Resource to include "significant landscape features," and defines Work to include "demolition," which in turn means "the razing or destruction, whether entirely or in part, of a resource."
How to apply in Detroit
- 1
Detroit publishes no application steps for a private tree, because it publishes no such permit. Its permit index lists more than twenty permit types and none is a tree permit.
- 2
If the tree is in the right-of-way between the sidewalk and the street, it is a city tree. Call the general tree issue line at 313-871-5461 or report it through Improve Detroit.
- 3
For an immediate hazard on a city tree, call the forestry emergency line, 313-599-3339.
- 4
If your property sits in a local historic district, the city publishes three steps: "CONFIRM PROPERTY IS LOCATED WITHIN A LOCAL HISTORIC DISTRICT," then "REQUEST PROJECT REVIEW BY HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION ONLINE HERE," then "IF APPROVED, OBTAIN BUILDING PERMIT."
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- No dollar figure is published for the Section 16-3-5 permit and no Detroit fee schedule listing a tree permit was located. Two deposits are specified without amounts. Section 16-3-7: "All persons desiring to excavate any ditches, tunnels, trenches or lay drives shall deposit a sum sufficient to cover the cost of inspection and damage that may result therefrom." Section 16-3-20: "Any person desiring to remove a live tree or shrub for the construction of walks, drives, buildings or other structures for such person's own gain shall deposit with the General Services Department a sum equal to the value of the tree, as determined by the Department." Historic District Commission review is free, and the HDC warns in capitals on its own page that neither it nor the Planning Department collects fees for review.
- Penalties
- Section 16-3-2, worded identically at Sections 16-3-42 and 16-3-92 for the other two divisions: "It shall be unlawful for any person to violate any provision of this article. Any person who violates this article may be issued a misdemeanor violation for each day that the violation continues. Any person who is found guilty of violating any provision of this article shall be convicted of a misdemeanor for each violation that is issued and, in the discretion of the court, may be fined up to $500.00 and sentenced up to 90 days in jail, or both, for each misdemeanor violation that is issued." State law backs this up for highway trees: MCL 247.241 makes it "unlawful to cut, destroy or otherwise injure any shade or ornamental tree or shrub growing within the limits of any public highway" without the consent of the road authority. Historic district violations are worse in a different way — the city warns that they "stay with a property, despite ownership changes" and "may complicate or prevent property transfers/sales."
- Ordinance
- 2019 Detroit City Code Chapter 16 (Environment), Article III (Vegetation): Division 1, Trees and Shrubs Along Streets, Sections 16-3-1 through 16-3-20; Division 2, Landscape Gardening, Tree Work, and Sale of Nursery Stock, Sections 16-3-41 through 16-3-47; Division 3, Diseased or Dangerous Trees, Sections 16-3-91 through 16-3-98. The code itself was adopted by Ordinance No. 28-19, passed September 10, 2019, approved September 11, 2019, effective October 1, 2019; the substantive tree text carries forward from the 1964 and 1984 Detroit City Codes. The one post-2021 change is a repeal: an editor's note records that "Ord. No. 2021-55, Section 1, effective December 9, 2021, amended Div. 2 by deleting the designations of Subdivs. A and B and repealing Sections 16-3-61-16-3-71," which had licensed landscape gardening and tree work. Historic districts at Chapter 21, Article II, Division 4 (Ordinance No. 15-04, effective May 7, 2004). Zoning landscaping at Chapter 50, Sections 50-14-301 through 50-14-377 (Ordinance No. 11-05, effective May 28, 2005). Code current through Ordinance No. 2024-17, effective March 26, 2024, and Ordinance No. 2024-32, effective June 25, 2024 (Supp. No. 4), with roughly 70 ordinances pending codification.
Worth knowing
- Detroit used to license tree services and repealed it. Ordinance No. 2021-55, effective December 9, 2021, repealed Sections 16-3-61 through 16-3-71, the landscape gardening and tree work license. What survives is consumer protection, and it still names tree companies: Section 16-3-43(7) applies the division to "All persons in the business of pruning, removing, repairing, treating or spraying trees, shrubs, vines or plants," and Section 16-3-46 requires the company to give you a bill of sale showing "the name and address of the vendor," an itemized list, and contract terms "fully understood and agreed upon by both parties before such documents are signed." Section 16-3-47 has the General Services Department investigate complaints of misrepresentation. So there is no city licence number to check, but you are entitled to an itemized written bill of sale.
- You may trim the tree out front, but the sections conflict on whether you may cut it. Section 16-3-4's second sentence says it "shall not be construed to prohibit any person owning or occupying any lot in front of, or adjacent to, which there may be any shade or ornamental trees from trimming the same," while Section 16-3-5 still requires a General Services Department permit to prune, cut or destroy a public-highway tree. Both are reported rather than reconciled.
- You have an affirmative duty over the street. Section 16-3-9: "Every owner of any tree, shrub, or plant overhanging the streets or highways within the City shall trim the branches so that they shall not obstruct the light from any street lamp or obstruct the view of any street intersection, and so that there shall be a clear space of ten feet above the surface of the street or sidewalk. Such owners shall remove all dead, diseased or dangerous trees, and broken or decayed limbs, which may be considered a menace to the safety of the public."
- The city can come onto your land, mark the tree, and bill you. Section 16-3-94 lets the director "enter private property, upon presenting appropriate credentials," inspect, and "place a distinguishing mark thereon, by blaze or otherwise." Section 16-3-95 provides notice, an abatement order, and a show-cause hearing before an officer who "shall not be an employee of the General Services Department." Under Section 16-3-97 an unpaid abatement bill becomes "a lien on the affected real property" after thirty days. Section 16-3-96(b) provides a hardship route: where the cost "would be a financial hardship," the hearing officer is limited to an extended payment plan.
- Elm firewood is regulated after you cut. Section 16-3-98: "It shall be unlawful in the City to possess, store or otherwise retain the woody portions of any species of elm unless such portions are completely stripped of all bark."
- Detroit holds zoning authority over private trees and points it away from houses. Section 50-14-303 is explicit: "The following shall be expressly exempt from all landscaping and screening standards of this division: (1) The construction of a single-family or two-family dwelling...; and (2) Repair or enlargement of a single-family or two-family dwelling." Section 50-14-377 is titled "Incentives to preserving existing trees" and offers landscaping credits rather than restrictions.
- The city has run a program that removes hazardous private trees for free. Its Dead, Dangerous, and Diseased Tree Program invited residents to "report trees on their private property they feel need to be trimmed or removed. If the trees qualify, they will be trimmed or removed, with no charge to the resident," backed by up to 8.3 million dollars, with the procurement scope covering trees "from 19-60 inches in diameter breast height (DBH)." Ask whether it is currently funded.
- Twelve species may not be newly planted under Section 50-14-324, including silver maple, boxelder, thorned honey locust, female ginkgo, mulberry, cottonwood, black locust, willow, American elm, Siberian elm, slippery elm and catalpa, "except upon special review and approval."
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.
- — No City of Detroit page states affirmatively that no permit is required to remove a tree on private property. The conclusion rests on the public-highway scoping in the operative sections, an exhaustive search of the codified text finding no private tree permit, and the absence of any tree permit on the city's published permit index.
- — Section 16-3-20 is genuinely ambiguous and is reported rather than resolved. Its text — "Any person desiring to remove a live tree or shrub for the construction of walks, drives, buildings or other structures for such person's own gain shall deposit with the General Services Department a sum equal to the value of the tree" — carries no express public-highway limiter, unlike every neighbouring section. Read narrowly against its placement in the division titled "Trees and Shrubs Along Streets," it covers right-of-way trees only. Read literally, it could reach a private-lot tree removed to build a driveway or an addition. No city page, guidance document or fee schedule interpreting it was found. If you are removing a live tree to build, ask the General Services Department first.
- — Whether removing a tree in a local historic district needs a certificate of appropriateness. No code section or city page says so in terms, but Section 21-2-2 defines Resource to include "significant landscape features" and Work to include demolition, the HDC guidelines direct owners to "Preserve and protect from damage existing mature trees and heritage trees," and an HDC resolution on utility work approves removal only where "the city forester has specifically approved the removal of the subject tree" and a replacement is planted. Call 313-224-1762 before removing a mature tree in a historic district.
- — The fee or deposit amount for a Section 16-3-5 permit, and any application form, portal or processing time. None is published, and the permit is not on the city's permit index.
- — The current status of the Dead, Dangerous, and Diseased Tree Program. Only the 2023 launch announcement and a 2023 procurement posting were found; there is no standing program page.
- — Which General Services Department phone number is correct. The Forestry page publishes 313-224-1300 and the department page publishes 313-224-1100. Both are current city pages.
- — Ordinance No. 2025-26, which appears in Detroit's ordinance bank and includes a prohibition on destroying or injuring "any tree, shrub, grass, turf, plants, crops, or soil of another that is standing, growing, or located on the land of another." It postdates the last codified supplement and its effective date and codified section could not be confirmed.
- — Whether Michigan licenses tree services at state level now that Detroit's local licence is repealed. Not researched.
Sources
- City of Detroit — Forestry Division, General Services Department
- City of Detroit — Trees: Trimming, Removal and Stumps
- City of Detroit — Apply or Renew a Permit or Certification (full permit index)
- City of Detroit — Dead, Dangerous, and Diseased Tree Program
- Detroit City Code Ch. 16 Art. III — Vegetation (Municode)
- Detroit City Code Sec. 16-3-5 — Permit required for tree work in public highways (Municode)
- Detroit City Code Div. 3 — Diseased or Dangerous Trees (Municode)
- Detroit City Code Sec. 50-14-303 — Landscaping exemptions for one- and two-family dwellings (Municode)
- Detroit Historic District Commission — Site Elements design guidelines
- Michigan Compiled Laws 247.241 — injuring trees in a public highway