Do you need a permit?
It depends on the tree
Pearl City is not an incorporated city — it is a community in the City and County of Honolulu, and Honolulu's island-wide tree rules govern it. A tree that the City Council has designated "exceptional" cannot be removed without Council approval, and the tree in the planting strip between the curb and your property line is a City street tree that requires a Parks and Recreation permit. For an ordinary tree in your own yard, the City publishes no clear blanket permit rule, so call the Division of Urban Forestry with your address before you cut.
What's protected in Pearl City
- Trees on the City and County of Honolulu Register of Exceptional Trees (individually designated by the City Council under ROH Chapter 40, Article 8)
- Street trees — any tree in the "planting strip" between the curb or pavement of a street and the adjacent property line
How to apply in Pearl City
- 1
Check whether your tree is on the Register of Exceptional Trees, published with ROH Chapter 40, Article 8.
- 2
To prune an exceptional tree, complete the Application for Exceptional Tree Crown and/or Root Pruning.
- 3
Have a qualified arborist complete the Qualified Arborist Application Form.
- 4
Email signed copies to duf@honolulu.gov, or mail them to the Arborist Advisory Committee at 3902 Pākī Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815.
- 5
To remove an exceptional tree you need approval from the City Council itself (ROH § 40-8.8(a)), not a department permit.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Penalties
- Removing or destroying a designated exceptional tree without City Council approval: fine of not more than $1,000 (ROH § 40-8.8(a)). Violating the street tree rules — pruning, spraying, or removing a planting-strip tree without a permit, or injuring one — is punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding $500, imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both.
- Ordinance
- Revised Ordinances of Honolulu, Chapter 40, Article 8 — Protective Regulations for Exceptional Trees; Department of Parks and Recreation "Rules and Regulations Relative to Planting and Maintenance of Street Trees"
Worth knowing
- There is no diameter threshold anywhere in Honolulu's exceptional-tree ordinance. A tree is either individually designated by the City Council or it is not.
- ROH § 40-8.8(b) makes it unlawful to alter the characteristic shape of an exceptional tree or remove any branch without a Parks and Recreation permit — so pruning is regulated even when removal is not on the table.
- The City's street tree rules define "tree" as any plant with a single trunk that will eventually reach at least 15 feet, and the "planting strip" as the area between the curb or pavement and your property line. That strip is City land even though you mow it.
- Hawaiʻi state law (HRS § 235-19) allows an income tax deduction of up to $3,000 per exceptional tree for maintenance spending, once in every three consecutive tax years.
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 a permit is required to remove an ordinary, non-designated tree on private property in Pearl City. No City and County of Honolulu source states a general private-property rule or a diameter exemption.
- — Permit fees for exceptional-tree pruning or street tree work.
- — Whether any tree at a given Pearl City address is on the Register of Exceptional Trees.
Sources
- City and County of Honolulu — Exceptional Tree Program, Division of Urban Forestry
- Revised Ordinances of Honolulu § 40-8.8 (Regulations) — official code library
- City and County of Honolulu DPR — Rules and Regulations Relative to Planting and Maintenance of Street Trees (PDF)
- Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 235-19 — Exceptional trees; tax deduction