Do you need a permit?
It depends on the tree
Monroe is the one Louisiana city where the obvious answer and the operative answer point different ways, and the reason is new. The landscaping chapter plainly exempts you - Section 19.5-3(b) says "Single-family and two-family residences shall be exempt from these requirements." But in March 2025 the city adopted a Site Clearing article that requires a permit "before conducting any clearing or grubbing activities," and it defines clearing as "the removal of debris, trees, brush, vines, sod, and other vegetative growth at or above the ground surface for development, maintenance, or change of land use." Removing a tree is removal of vegetative growth, and maintenance is one of the listed purposes. Nothing in the article exempts a homeowner or sets a minimum size, so on its face it reaches a single tree in a back yard. The application form, though, is written for contractors. Call Planning and Zoning at 318-329-2231 before you cut.
Size threshold
None stated, in either direction - and that is the problem. The Site Clearing article sets no minimum tree size, no minimum area and no residential threshold; it asks only for "The number of acres to be cleared." Separately, if you meet a caliper figure in the landscaping chapter, note that Monroe measures unusually: Section 19.5-2 defines caliper as "The diameter of a tree trunk measured six (6) inches above ground level," not the 4.5-foot DBH convention used in most states, and "If a tree is of a multitrunk variety, the caliper of the tree is the average caliper of all its trunks."
What's protected in Monroe
- Any clearing or grubbing anywhere in the city, under the 2025 Site Clearing article, which on its face includes removing trees for maintenance and contains no single-family exemption.
- Trees on new commercial, governmental, industrial, multi-family of three or more units, religious, educational and conditional-use development having street frontage, under Chapter 19.5. Single-family and two-family residences are expressly exempt from this chapter.
How to apply in Monroe
- 1
Call Planning and Urban Development at 318-329-2231 first and ask whether your job counts as clearing. The article does not answer that for a single yard tree, and the department administering it is the only body that can.
- 2
If a permit is required, file with the Planning and Zoning Director and pay the $100 nonrefundable application fee, plus the zoning certificate and site plan review fees.
- 3
The application asks for a copy of the contractor's license, a certificate of general liability insurance, the contractor's occupational license, a scaled map showing property boundaries and existing structures, and a description of the work.
- 4
The description must state whether the property is in a historic district, the number of acres to be cleared, proposed start and completion dates, the means and methods, and a disposal plan.
- 5
Contact Louisiana One Call and have the site marked before any excavation - that is a condition of the permit, not optional.
- 6
Mark the work perimeter visibly, establish an entrance, and install erosion control such as silt fence or hay bales, inspected daily until vegetative cover is re-established.
- 7
A site clearing permit expires if work does not begin within six months, or if work stops for six months. One six-month extension may be granted on written request made at least 30 days before expiry.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- Site clearing permit: "An application fee of one hundred dollars ($100.00) shall be paid when the application for the permit is filed (nonrefundable)" (Section 9-33). Applicants must also "pay the permitting fees for a zoning certificate, site plan review, and site clearing permit," so the $100 is not necessarily the whole cost. A separate driveway and drainage project permit is $25 payable to the engineering department (Section 9-24.2).
- Penalties
- Section 9-25 covers the whole of chapter 9, which includes the site clearing article: anyone found guilty of violating it, "or fails to obtain a permit to perform work or beginning work prior to the issuance of a permit ... shall be fined five hundred dollars ($500.00) per permit and doubled permit fees. Any person or entity found to have committed two (2) or more such violations shall be prohibited from the issuance of any new permits for a period of one (1) year."
- Ordinance
- Site clearing: Monroe Code of Ordinances ch. 9 (Buildings), art. III, Sections 9-27 to 9-33, adopted by Ord. No. 12,257 on March 25, 2025. Landscaping: ch. 19.5, adopted by Ord. No. 9739, 10-14-97 and amended by Ord. No. 10,920, 4-28-09. Penalties for chapter 9 are at Section 9-25, most recently amended by Ord. No. 12,280, 12-22-25. The code is codified through Ordinance No. 12,292, enacted April 14, 2026 (Supp. No. 18).
Worth knowing
- The site clearing permit is a 2025 addition. Anything written about Monroe tree rules before March 2025, including advice from a contractor who has worked in the city for years, may predate it.
- A site clearing permit does not authorise demolition or grading - Section 9-30 says so expressly, so stump grinding or regrading afterwards may need something further.
- Section 9-32(e) requires that "Existing on-site vegetation shall be preserved to the maximum extent practicable," which is a condition attached to every permit rather than a separate approval step.
- Louisiana licenses arborists at state level, and Monroe's application asks for the contractor's licence and occupational licence, so hiring an unlicensed cutter creates a problem at the permit counter as well as with the state.
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 in practice requires a site clearing permit from a homeowner removing one tree from a residential yard. The ordinance as written contains no exemption and no threshold, but the application requirements are drafted for contractors and ask for acres cleared. We are recording that tension rather than resolving it, because only the Planning and Zoning Director can say how it is applied.
- — The zoning certificate and site plan review fees that Section 9-31 requires alongside the $100 site clearing fee. The amounts are not in the article and no consolidated planning fee schedule was located.
- — Whether any separate street-tree or right-of-way rule exists. Chapter 31 (Streets and Sidewalks) and Section 29-6 (rights-of-way maintenance and clearing of obstructions) were identified but not read in full.