Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Janesville has no tree chapter and no tree removal permit at all - the code index runs straight from Streets to Subdivisions. What it has instead is an unusually aggressive nuisance article aimed at diseased and unsafe trees, and an unusual allocation of responsibility: in Janesville the terrace tree in front of your house is yours, not the city's. The city states plainly that "trees that are located on private property, including within any adjacent terraces, are the responsibility of the property owner," and the code requires every abutting owner to maintain "all public and private trees located thereon." Forfeitures for the nuisance article run as high as 10,000 dollars.
Size threshold
None. No diameter, DBH or caliper figure triggers anything in the Janesville code. The nuisance article turns on the condition of the tree, not its size.
What's protected in Janesville
- There is no protected tree category, no heritage or landmark designation, and no species protection in Janesville. The code runs the other way: it lists categories of tree you must remove.
- Declared public nuisances under Section 22-133(a): "(1) Any living or standing elm tree or part thereof infected with the Dutch elm disease fungus or which harbors any of the elm bark beetles... (2) Any living or standing ash tree or part thereof Fraxinus... infected with or which harbors the emerald ash borer; (3) Any dead, infected, or diseased elm, ash, or other tree or part thereof, including logs, branches, stumps, firewood, or other material from which the bark and/or other tree parts have not been removed and burned, or sprayed with an effective elm bark beetle or emerald ash borer, or other insect, as applicable, destroying insecticide."
- Any tree obstructing a traffic sign. Section 34-200: "It is unlawful for any person to plant, cause to grow, allow to grow, or maintain any trees, bushes, shrubbery or vegetation of any kind which is an obstruction to the clear and complete vision of any traffic sign within the City."
- Boulevard trees, which are the one thing Janesville reserves to itself. Section 34-203: "only the City shall have the right to plant and the responsibility to maintain, trim or remove, as needed, all trees, shrubbery, plants and lawns located on boulevards," where boulevard means "any grassed or planted area dedicated to the public and located between the edges of two roadways that together comprise a single street" - a median, not the terrace.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Penalties
- The nuisance article is the expensive one. Section 22-149(a): "Any person, firm, or corporation who violates any of the provisions of this article shall, upon conviction thereof, forfeit and pay to the City not less than $100.00 nor more than $10,000.00, together with the costs of prosecution." Subsection (b) makes each day of non-compliance with any order of the City Forester a separate violation. The street and terrace articles are much lighter: Sections 34-202 and 34-255 both cap the penalty at "not exceeding $100.00, together with the costs of prosecution for each offense," with up to 30 days in the county jail in default.
- Ordinance
- Janesville Code of General Ordinances chapter 22 (Nuisances), Article V - Dutch Elm, Emerald Ash Borer and Other Diseased, Infested, Infected, Damaged and/or Unsafe Trees, Sections 22-132 through 22-149. Every section carries the citation "(Code 1976, Section 8.20.xxx; Ord. No. 2018-714, Section I, 3-26-2018)" - the article was rewritten in full by Ordinance No. 2018-714, adopted March 26, 2018, and the emerald ash borer language went into the article title at that point. Section 22-143 notes a "Dormancy subsection repealed 10-22-2012." Street tree duties are chapter 34 (Streets and Sidewalks), Article VII, from Code 1976 Section 12.24 and Ordinance No. 80-204 (1980), and Article IX (Terraces), from Code 1976 Sections 12.32.010 and 12.32.020 and Ordinance No. 80-194 (1980). Code current through Ordinance No. 2025-925, enacted January 12, 2026 (Supp. No. 18).
Worth knowing
- This is the fact that separates Janesville from the rest of Wisconsin. Section 34-254(2) requires the abutting owner to keep the terrace clear of noxious weeds, maintained as a lawn, and to "maintain all public and private trees located thereon in the manner set forth in Article V of chapter 22 and Article VII of this chapter." The city's own page says it more directly: "City Ordinance states that trees that are located on private property, including within any adjacent terraces, are the responsibility of the property owner."
- The duty to remove a diseased tree is absolute and personal. Section 22-134(c): "It shall be the duty of every real property owner to promptly remove and properly dispose of any such trees, and parts thereof, constituting a public nuisance and/or as otherwise prohibited by any provision of this article, and/or as determined or directed by the City Forester."
- The City Forester inspects every property in Janesville twice a year. Section 22-139(b) requires inspection of "all outdoor public and private premises and places within the City at least twice each year."
- The Forester can walk onto your land without asking. Section 22-135: the Forester may enter "any public or private lot or parcel of land in the City at all reasonable hours" for inspection, testing, sampling, remediation, removal and abatement, and "No additional consent from the property owner and/or possession is necessary."
- The city may act without warning you first. Section 22-140(c): the Forester "may, but is not required to, provide notice, directive, and/or order to the affected property owner... prior to taking or ordering removal, abatement, remediation, and/or other actions permitted under this article." Section 22-140(b) makes the cost a lien "until paid... no further action of the City Council being necessary."
- Section 22-133(b) states the reach in one sentence: "The City shall have control to remove such trees, shrubs, and other plantings on any private place within the City limits."
- In practice the city gives you time. Its published procedure is a door hanger or letter, then re-inspection after 30 days for trimming violations and after 90 days for removals, before the city contracts the work at your expense. Before and after photographs are taken of all city-performed work.
- You must keep limbs 15 feet above the street and 7 feet above the sidewalk under Section 34-197(a), and remove "all trees, bushes, shrubbery, vegetation or limbs thereof which are so aged or decayed" as to be a hazard under Section 34-198(a). Non-compliance for ten days after notice lets the city do the work, lien the property, and prosecute.
- Janesville does not license tree services, but it does maintain an Approved Contractors List. Since 2015 the Operations Division has issued an annual Request for Qualifications, and only firms that respond and meet minimum qualifications may bid on city tree work. That list governs city contracts, not who you may hire privately.
- Section 22-146(a) puts the stump on you: "The property owner shall remove or cause to be removed the tree stump, the cost of which shall be paid by the property owner."
- You have 10 days to appeal, and only the owner of the land the tree is rooted in may do it. Section 22-141 sends appeals straight to the City Council, and a tie vote affirms the Forester.
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 any Janesville ordinance requires a permit to remove a healthy tree from private property. None was found: the code has no trees chapter, chapter 12 (Business Licenses) has no tree category, and chapter 42 (Zoning) contains no tree preservation article. Silence is what is being reported, not permission. Janesville is currently rewriting its zoning and subdivision code, so confirm before you cut.
- — What the zoning and subdivision code rewrite will do to tree rules. The city advertises the project on its own site but the draft was not retrieved.
- — Whether a city permit is needed to work in the terrace itself, as distinct from on the tree. Section 34-254 assigns the maintenance duty to the abutting owner but sets no permit process.
- — Whether the city ever pays for removal of a diseased terrace tree. Section 22-144 says removal by the city "need only be done as far as practically possible within the limits of funds actually appropriated," and Section 22-140(g) states the city will not reimburse an owner for "the destruction, diminution, or loss value of the tree."
- — Any fee schedule for tree work. Appendix A of the code is a fee schedule, but no tree entry was located in it.
- — Whether the City Forester is a city employee or a contractor at present. Section 22-139(a) allows either.
- — A direct phone number or email for the City Forester as distinct from the City Services Center line.
Sources
- City of Janesville - Tree Trimming and Removal, Public Works Operations Division
- Janesville Code ch. 22 Art. V - Dutch Elm, Emerald Ash Borer and Other Diseased Trees (Municode)
- Janesville Code ch. 34 Art. VII - Streets and Sidewalks, Trees and Shrubbery (Municode)
- Janesville Code ch. 34 Art. IX - Terraces (Municode)
- Janesville Code of General Ordinances (Municode index)
- City of Janesville - Public Works Operations Division