Do you need a permit?
Yes — a permit is required
The City of Miami requires a tree permit for essentially any work affecting a tree on any property in the city, and there is no exemption for single-family homes. The threshold is low: a tree at least 12 feet tall with a trunk 2 inches DBH or larger, or a palm at least 16 feet tall with a 6-inch DBH. Miami is one of only eleven Miami-Dade municipalities that enforce their own ordinance rather than going through the county.
Size threshold
Sec. 17-2: "A tree regulated under this chapter must have a minimum size of 12 feet overall height with a DBH of two inches or larger. A palm regulated under this chapter must have a minimum height of 16 feet overall with a DBH of six inches or larger."
What's protected in Miami
- Specimen trees — 18" DBH or larger. Palms, non-native Ficus and non-native commercial fruit-grove trees are not specimen trees but are still regulated.
- Mangroves and any tree on wetlands (also Miami-Dade Code Ch. 24, Art. 2)
- Trees in natural forest communities (also Miami-Dade Code Ch. 24, Art. 3)
- Street trees and any tree on dedicated street, alley, right-of-way, easement, median or city land — permit comes from Resilience and Public Works, not Planning and Zoning
- Prohibited species including Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Penalties
- Sec. 17-10(a): $1,000 per tree on non-homestead property, $500 per tree on homestead property, for any tree subject to tree activity without a permit or to tree abuse. A second violation within five years goes to the code enforcement board with enhanced penalties of $5,000 per day per violation under Fla. Stat. § 162.09. Sec. 17-9 adds a further $500 fine payable to the city tree trust fund.
- Ordinance
- City of Miami Code Chapter 17 — Environmental Preservation, Article I (Secs. 17-1 through 17-11)
Worth knowing
- "Tree activity" is defined broadly as tree removal, pruning more than 25 percent, and root pruning more than ten percent or trimming a root more than one inch in diameter. Pruning strictly to ANSI A-300 standards needs no permit.
- Sec. 17-11 lists only four exemptions and none is residential: nursery and botanical-garden trees; a declared state of emergency; immediate removal of a life-safety tree (still demonstrated to the city, ideally with photos taken beforehand); and proper ANSI A-300 pruning.
- Tree Trust Fund contributions where replacement is not feasible: $1,000 per two-inch DBH tree non-homestead, $500 homestead. No fee for removing prohibited species.
- Review generally completes within 15 business days, then a public notice of intended decision is posted for 10 calendar days before the permit issues.
- The phone number is published by Miami-Dade County on its own tree removal application package as the City of Miami contact; miami.gov blocks automated access so it could not be cross-checked there.
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 permit fee. Sec. 17-4(g) points to Sec. 10-4, but no tree line item appears in the codified building or zoning fee schedules, and the published schedule lives on miami.gov, which returns 403.
- — Whether Miami recognises the Fla. Stat. 163.045 arborist exemption. "163.045" appears nowhere in Chapter 17, which does cite other Florida statutes — so the omission looks deliberate.