Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Henderson has no permit to remove a tree on your own property and no diameter threshold. The tree chapter of the Henderson Municipal Code, Chapter 5.28, runs the other direction entirely: instead of stopping you from cutting, it is a duty to cut. It makes it your job to trim or remove a tree that encroaches on the street, sidewalk or a public park, or that is diseased enough to threaten public trees, and it lets a code enforcement officer order you to do it within five days.
Size threshold
None. Chapter 5.28 contains no diameter, caliper or circumference figure of any kind, and no species list. The trigger is encroachment or hazard, judged by the building director, not size.
What's protected in Henderson
- Nothing on private property is protected from removal by the Henderson Municipal Code. What the code protects instead is the public: HMC 5.28.010 makes it your duty to keep a tree on your property "from encroaching upon or obstructing the abutting or adjacent streets, sidewalks and public parks, buildings and grounds."
How to apply in Henderson
- 1
There is no application. If the tree is on your own property and is not encroaching on a public place, Henderson requires nothing of you before you remove it.
- 2
If the tree is in the street or in a park, call Parks and Recreation at 702-267-4000 before touching it.
- 3
If you received a written order about a tree, HMC 5.28.040 gives you five days from service to comply before the city can do the work and bill you.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- No permit exists, so no fee. If the city has to do the work for you, HMC 5.28.040 lets the building director "remedy the condition or contract with others for such purpose and charge the cost thereof to the person to whom the order is directed."
- Penalties
- HMC 5.28.060: "Any person who, having been served with a written order as provided in HMC section 5.28.030, and fails to comply therewith, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. Each day such a violation is committed or permitted to continue shall constitute a separate offense." Note the trigger - the misdemeanor is for ignoring an order, not for cutting a tree down.
- Ordinance
- Henderson Municipal Code Chapter 5.28 (Trees and Plants), in Title 5 (Health and Sanitation). Every section in the chapter derives from a single enactment: Ord. 1234 (part), 1991. It has not been amended in the 35 years since. Zoning is elsewhere and is not in the Municode codification at all: HMC 19.01 says "The City of Henderson adopts by reference the City of Henderson Development Code as a specialized code. Copies of this code are on file in the office of the city clerk" (Ord. No. 2939, section 4, adopted November 2, 2011). Municipal code current through Ordinance No. 4163, adopted June 16, 2026 (Supp. No. 59, Update 3).
Worth knowing
- The order can arrive by a method you would not expect. HMC 5.28.030 permits service by personal delivery, by leaving it "with some person of suitable age and discretion upon the premises," by taping "a copy of the order to the door at the premises in violation," by certified mail, and - only if all four of those are impractical - by newspaper publication once a week for three weeks.
- Diseased trees are the other half of the duty. HMC 5.28.010.B requires "Treating or removing any tree, plant or shrub so diseased or insect-ridden as to constitute a hazard to the public or to any tree, plant or shrub in public places," and HMC 5.28.020 lets the building director order treatment, trimming or removal "when he shall find such action necessary to public safety and/or health or to prevent the spread of disease or insects to public trees."
- The unpaid-bill machinery is real but sits in a different chapter. For litter and refuse, HMC 5.04.050.C makes the city cost "a lien upon the real property of such owner until such charge is paid," enforceable by recording a notice within 400 days and foreclosing within two years. Chapter 5.28 authorizes the charge but does not itself set out that lien procedure.
- Master-planned communities are the practical constraint in Henderson, not the city. Green Valley, Anthem, Inspirada, Cadence and Seven Hills are association-governed, and CC&Rs commonly require architectural committee approval before a landscape change. The city not requiring a permit does not mean your association does not.
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 Henderson Development Code (Title 19) itself. It is adopted by reference and is not published in the Municode codification, so its landscaping and tree-preservation standards for new development could not be read. A Henderson homeowner doing new construction or a large remodel should ask Community Development whether the Development Code imposes any tree requirement.
- — Whether Henderson has a street tree or right-of-way tree permit. Title 11 (Streets and Sidewalks) has chapters on obstructions, sidewalks and right-of-way construction, but no tree chapter, and no tree permit was found there.
- — Whether Henderson licenses tree services. Title 4 (Business Regulations and Licenses) was not read section by section.
- — The direct phone number for Henderson code enforcement, and the current name of the office the code calls the "building director."
- — Whether Southern Nevada Water Authority turf-conversion rules or Nevada AB 356 (2021) create any obligation when a tree is removed or replaced in Henderson.