Do you need a permit?
It depends on the tree
Sandy Springs reaches private residential lots with no construction at all. You need a Tree Removal Permit for any tree 18 inches DBH or larger, any dogwood or redbud at 10 inches or larger, any tree in a stream buffer, and any tree within 2,000 feet of the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Below those thresholds no permit is needed, and there is no annual allowance of free trees anywhere in the ordinance. Dead and hazardous trees are exempt from the permit, but the city still wants photos emailed to the City Arborist first.
Size threshold
Section 9.3.3.A.1: "a Tree Removal Permit is required when any of the following trees are removed or 25% or more of the critical root zone is disturbed by any intentional activities of the property owner or the owner's agent or employees: a. Any Protected Tree, Setback Tree, Boundary Tree or Landmark Tree; b. Any tree located within 2,000 feet of the banks of the Chattahoochee River; and c. Any tree in a required stream buffer." The city restates that in plain terms as any tree 18 inches DBH or larger, any dogwood or redbud 10 inches DBH or larger, and any tree in a stream buffer or the Chattahoochee River Corridor.
What's protected in Sandy Springs
- Protected Tree — "a tree 18 inches DBH or larger, other than a Landmark Tree or Setback Tree, in fair or better condition."
- Setback Tree — "a tree 18 inches DBH or larger located in the minimum required setbacks of any property."
- Landmark Tree — "1. Hardwood tree 27 inches DBH or larger; 2. Pine tree 30 inches DBH or larger; or 3. Dogwood or redbud tree ten inches DBH or larger being in fair or better condition."
- Boundary Tree — "a tree 10 inches DBH or larger located on a property adjacent to a permitting property whose critical root zone or canopy extends into that permitting property." Your neighbour's tree can trigger your permit.
- Trees in a required stream buffer — a 50-foot undisturbed vegetative buffer plus a 25-foot impervious surface setback, which the city describes publicly as a 75-foot protected corridor.
- Trees within 2,000 feet of the banks of the Chattahoochee River, under the Metropolitan River Protection Act corridor.
How to apply in Sandy Springs
- 1
Measure DBH first: measure the circumference at 4.5 feet above ground, from the high side if the ground slopes, and divide by 3.14.
- 2
Check whether your lot has a stream buffer using the city's Community Development Map with the StreamBufferQuickDraw layer enabled.
- 3
Apply online through the Build Sandy Springs OpenGov portal. Property owners, certified arborists and commercial tree removal company representatives may all file.
- 4
Include photos showing the condition of the trees, and a drawing identifying every tree proposed for removal with each one marked with an X. Hand-drawn sketches or printed property maps are acceptable.
- 5
An arborist report is optional for a straightforward removal but expected for a dead, dying or hazardous claim.
- 6
For a dead, dying, diseased or hazardous tree, email the City Arborist with the tree description, property address, description of the issue and photos. The city asks for approval before removal, and there is a separate portal record type for the notification.
- 7
If the removal is tied to construction — grading, a pool, a patio, an addition — do not file a Tree Removal Permit. Submit a Tree Conservation Plan with the construction documents instead.
- 8
Replacement trees must be a minimum 2.5-inch caliper large canopy species and be maintained for three full growing seasons. Landmark Trees replace at a canopy potential of 150 percent of what was removed.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- The city does not publish a dollar amount for the Tree Removal Permit. Build Sandy Springs "automatically calculates permit fees prior to submission," and the published Community Development fee schedule has no tree line item. What is published is the mitigation: "an assessed value of $5,000.00 per 1,000 square feet of canopy will be used when canopy replacement cannot be achieved by replanting on the site"; $1,200.00 per 1,000 square feet where construction drops canopy below the minimum; and "For any unauthorized tree removal, an assessed value of $7,500.00 per 1,000 square feet of canopy removed." The city translates the middle figure for homeowners as $1,200 into the City Tree Fund for each Protected Tree removed.
- Penalties
- Section 9.3.8.G: "Any person, firm, corporation or other entity violating any of the provisions of this Article is guilty of a violation of this Development Code. Each act of violation and each day upon which any act of violation occurs constitutes a separate violation of this Development Code. Each owner of any property where a violation exists is jointly and severally responsible for the violation. Unauthorized removal of a tree protected under the terms of this Article without compliance with the terms of this Article will result in an assessment for payment into the Sandy Springs Tree Bank at a calculated rate of $7,500.00 per 1,000 square feet of canopy removed." Section 1-10(c) of the Code of Ordinances sets the general penalty at a fine up to $1,000.00, imprisonment up to six months, confinement at labor up to 30 days, or any combination. The Director may issue a Notice of Violation, a Stop Work Order and a citation, and no certificate of occupancy issues without compliance.
- Ordinance
- City of Sandy Springs Development Code, Article 9 (Environmental Protection), Division 9.3 — Tree Conservation, sections 9.3.1 through 9.3.8. Ord. No. 2023-12-24, section I(Att. A), adopted December 5, 2023, repealed the former Article 9 in its entirety and enacted the current one. Section 9.3.8 was further amended by Ord. No. 2025-09-22, adopted September 16, 2025, which moved appeals to Fulton County Superior Court. Development Code codified through Ordinance No. 2025-09-22.
Worth knowing
- The whole tree chapter was replaced on December 5, 2023 as part of a citywide Development Code overhaul. Anything written about Sandy Springs tree rules before 2024 is stale.
- There is no free allowance. A full read of sections 9.3.1 through 9.3.8 and the Article 12 definitions turns up no "N trees per year" or per-lot exemption of the kind other metro cities use.
- The permit trigger is not only removal. Disturbing "25% or more of the critical root zone" counts, which catches driveway work, trenching and grading near a big tree. The critical root zone is the drip line or 1.25 feet per inch of DBH, whichever is greater, to a depth of three feet.
- Canopy minimums are what actually drive the mitigation bill: 35 percent for residential, 40 percent for nonresidential, commercial and industrial, measured across the whole lot. Only trees 18 inches DBH or larger count toward canopy, and each Protected Tree is credited at 1,000 square feet.
- Your contractor does not absorb your liability, and you do not absorb theirs. Section 11.8.2.C makes "any architect, design professional, builder, contractor or agent" separately guilty of a violation, while section 9.3.8.G.2 makes every owner jointly and severally responsible. A crew that cuts before your permit issues exposes both of you.
- The Tree Bank pays out as well as in. Sandy Springs runs a Landmark Tree Maintenance on Private Property programme that helps fund preservation of hardwoods 27 inches DBH or larger and pines 30 inches or larger with a documented health or safety concern, in exchange for an ISA arborist maintenance plan and a three-year protective covenant over the critical root zone.
- City arborists enforce the ordinance but, in the city's own words, "do not perform tree removals or tree health assessments." You still hire your own arborist.
- Appeals now go straight to court. As amended September 16, 2025, section 9.3.8.B routes an appeal "to Fulton County Superior Court, within 30 calendar days of the decision," replacing the old Board of Appeals path.
- Contractors must hold a Sandy Springs Business Occupational Tax Certificate and register in the permit portal, where the city verifies professional and business licenses annually.
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 dollar fee for the Tree Removal Permit itself. The portal computes it at submission without publishing amounts. The fee line items that can attach are named — Administrative Fee, Technology Fee, CC Fee, Tree Bank Fee, Assessed Tree Bank Fee, Tree Escrow, Performance Bond Tree, Maintenance Bond Tree — but not priced.
- — Whether the published Community Development fee schedule PDF is still operative. It is file-dated 2021 and references legacy zoning districts that predate the current Development Code.
- — Whether a healthy Landmark Tree can be removed at all absent construction. Section 9.3.6.B allows removal "only" where the tree is inside a permitted building footprint, where the City Arborist finds permitted land disturbance requires it, or where the tree is in poor health or dead. The city's public page instead treats Landmark removal as routinely permittable with 1.5-to-1 replacement. Both are reported; call the Arborist before assuming.
- — Whether a dead or hazardous tree needs approval before or notification after. The code exempts hazardous-tree removal "provided the owner of the property must immediately notify the City Arborist of the removal," which reads as after the fact, while the city page and portal ask for documentation and approval before removal. The code also covers only "hazardous" trees while the city broadens it to dead, dying, diseased or hazardous. Emailing first is the safe course.
- — The city's main tree-removal-permits page omits the 2,000-foot Chattahoochee corridor trigger that both the code and the permit portal state. A different city page does include it.
- — Permit processing time and how long a Tree Removal Permit stays valid. Neither is published.
- — Any dedicated post-storm expedited procedure beyond the standard hazardous-tree route.
Sources
- City of Sandy Springs — Tree Removal Permits
- City of Sandy Springs — Yard Maintenance and Tree Removal
- City of Sandy Springs — Tree Fund
- Sandy Springs Development Code, Division 9.3 — Tree Conservation
- Sandy Springs Development Code, Sec. 9.3.3 — Tree Removal
- Sandy Springs Development Code, Sec. 9.3.8 — Administration, Tree Bank and penalties
- Build Sandy Springs permit portal — Tree Removal Permit
- TA23-0003 Development Code as adopted December 5, 2023 (PDF)