Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
St. Joseph runs a street-tree and park-tree ordinance, not a private tree preservation ordinance. There is no tree removal permit, no size threshold, no protected species list and no replacement requirement for a tree on private residential ground, and the city's Permits and Licenses page lists no tree permit. Two permits do exist and both are right-of-way permits: $17 to excavate in a street to plant a tree, and $25 to trim "any trees standing in the street, boulevard, sidewalk space or parkway of the city." That $25 permit is the practical catch, because you are also required to keep the parkway tree in front of your house trimmed. Separately, a company that prunes, treats or removes street or park trees for hire must hold a $25 annual arborist license, and a dead or diseased tree on your own land is a declared nuisance you can be ordered to remove within 72 hours.
Size threshold
None. No diameter, caliper, DBH, height, canopy or species trigger appears anywhere in the tree article or the zoning landscape article for removal on private property. The only size numbers in the tree article do other jobs: topping is defined as "the severe cutting back of limbs to stubs larger than three inches in diameter within the tree's crown"; clearance must be "no lower than 14 feet over the surface of such street or eight feet over a sidewalk"; and a street or park tree stump must be cut so "the top of the stump shall not project more than two inches above the surface of the ground."
What's protected in St. Joseph
- Street trees — "Street trees means trees on land lying between property lines on either side of all streets, avenues, or ways within the city." Trimming one requires a permit and insurance; pruning, treating or removing one for hire requires an arborist license.
- Park trees — "Park trees means trees in public parks having individual names, and all areas owned by the city, or to which the public has free access as a park." No person may "willfully mark, deface, disfigure, tamper with, displace, or remove any ... trees, shrubs, flowers, or any other park property or appurtenances within any park, parkway, or boulevard except when authorized by the director of parks, recreation, and civic facilities."
- Species banned from the right-of-way, which is a prohibition rather than a protection — "No permit shall be issued for the planting of any box elder or cottonwood tree, and it shall be unlawful for any person to permit any box elder or cottonwood tree to remain planted or set out upon any sidewalk space or parkway." A 17-entry prohibited street tree list adds ash of any kind, black locust, Bradford or Callery pear, catalpa, cedar, fir, goldenchain, mimosa, mulberry, pine, pin oak, saucer magnolia, Siberian elm, silver maple, spruce, tree of heaven and willow of any kind.
- Topping is banned outright on public trees, with no permit path — "It shall be unlawful as a normal practice for any person, firm, or city department to top any street tree, park tree, or other tree on public property," excepting storm-damaged trees and extreme emergencies.
- Trees belonging to someone else, under the injuring-trees offense in the offenses-against-property chapter.
- There is no landmark, heritage or significant tree program. Searches of the codified ordinances for heritage tree, landmark tree, significant tree and tree preservation return nothing.
How to apply in St. Joseph
- 1
For a tree on your own private ground there is no application.
- 2
For a tree in the street, boulevard, sidewalk space or parkway, complete the city's Miscellaneous Permit Application and check the "Tree Trimming-Removal" box. A separate "Tree Planting" checkbox sits on the same form.
- 3
Show proof of insurance before the permit issues: "The applicant shall first present satisfactory evidence that he or she has obtained insurance meeting the requirements of this section."
- 4
Pay the $25 fee.
- 5
Permits are handled at City Hall, 1100 Frederick Avenue, Room 106 (Permits and Licenses, 816-271-4757) or Room 101A (Customer Service, 816-271-4751). Street closures go through Public Works.
- 6
If the work closes a street, notify the Police, Fire and Communication Center at 816-271-4777 and Streets Dispatch at 816-271-4863 both when you close it and when you reopen it.
- 7
Call Missouri One-Call at 811 at least two working days before any excavation.
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- Nothing to remove a tree on private property, because there is no permit. Planting in a street or parkway costs $17: "Fees for this permit are established as $17.00." Trimming a right-of-way tree costs $25: "Fees for this permit are established as $25.00." Your tree company pays $25 a year for an arborist license. If the city has to abate a hazard tree, "The cost of administratively processing the abatement to the director of administrative services shall be $75.00 per abatement action" on top of the removal cost.
- Penalties
- Division 2 of the tree article sets its own: "Any person violating any provision of this division shall be, upon conviction or a plea of guilty, subject to a fine not to exceed $500.00." Division 1 falls to the general penalty, "a fine not to exceed $500.00, or by imprisonment not exceeding 90 days, or both ... Each day any violation of this Code or of any ordinance continues shall constitute a separate offense," capped for municipal ordinance violations at $200 first, $275 second, $350 third and $450 for the fourth and beyond. Operating a tree service without a city business license draws "not less than $100.00 and not to exceed $500.00 for each offense and a further sum of not less than $100.00 and not to exceed $500.00 for each day" it continues. Leaving a dead tree standing as a nuisance escalates from a $100 minimum fine to $450 on a fourth offense in twelve months. When the city abates, it "may cause to remove the tree or branch, entering upon private property, if necessary, and recover the cost of such removal, together with costs and expenses therefor from the owner ... by special tax bill," which "from the date of its issuance shall be a lien on the property from the date the tax bill becomes delinquent until paid."
- Ordinance
- St. Joseph Code of Ordinances Chapter 25 (Streets, Sidewalks and Miscellaneous Public Places and Other Infrastructure), Article VI — Trees. Division 1 (Sections 25-266 through 25-270) derives from the 1969 Code and was amended by G.O. 1950 (June 9, 2003), G.O. 2819 (October 10, 2016) and G.O. 2979 (March 22, 2021). Division 2 (Sections 25-301 through 25-317) was enacted by General Ordinance No. 1116 on September 13, 1993 and amended by G.O. 1332, G.O. 1476, G.O. 1477, G.O. 2819 and G.O. 2979, with the abatement and appeal sections added by G.O. 2819. The Tree Board was re-created in Chapter 2 by G.O. 3103 on May 28, 2024. The code is a 2023 republication, current through "Ordinance No. 3140, enacted February 2, 2026 (Supplement No. 8)." A read of the full Code Comparative Table confirms no ordinance since the 2023 republication amends Chapter 25, Article VI; its substantive text is unchanged since March 2021.
Worth knowing
- The insurance rule is the single most useful consumer test in St. Joseph, and it is triggered by work near the street even when the tree is yours. Section 25-268(c) requires insurance of anyone "Trimming any tree in a manner that could reasonably cause limbs or the tree to fall into a street or across a sidewalk; Using an aerial bucket truck that is parked on any city street or has an apparatus reaching over a city sidewalk; or Moving limbs or other parts of a tree into trucks or trailers parked in the street." Contractor limits are $1,000,000 per occurrence general liability with the city named as an additional insured, workers compensation at statutory limits with employers liability of at least $500,000, and $1,000,000 per occurrence automobile for owned, hired and non-owned vehicles. Ask to see all three.
- The arborist license is narrower than it sounds. Section 25-304(a): "It shall be unlawful for any person or firm to engage in the business or occupation of pruning, treating, or removing street or park trees within the city without first applying for and procuring a license," at $25 annually, with liability insurance of at least $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident and $25,000 property damage. By its terms it is scoped to street or park trees, not to work confined to a private yard, and no bond is required.
- Nothing makes it unlawful for you to hire an unlicensed tree service. The duty falls on the firm engaging in the business and on the operator of an unlicensed business. For contrast, the code does impose a hiring-side duty in the plumbing trade, where "No person shall send an unlicensed person or unregistered apprentice to perform plumbing work," and there is no tree-work analogue.
- You are required to trim the parkway tree, and you need a $25 permit to do it. Section 25-269: "Every owner or occupant of any house, building, lot or premises shall keep the shade and ornamental trees in the streets or sidewalk spaces or parkways in front or alongside of such house, building, lot or premises trimmed so that the branches or limbs thereof shall be no lower than 14 feet over the surface of such street or eight feet over a sidewalk." Section 25-268(a) then requires a written permit to do that trimming.
- You can plant in the right-of-way, with a $17 permit. Section 25-310(b) "does not prohibit the planting of street trees by adjacent property owners providing that the section and location of such trees is in accordance with Sections 25-305 through 25-309," subject to the prohibited species list.
- Dead and diseased trees carry a 72-hour clock. Section 25-314 declares any dead or diseased tree on private property that "interferes with the maintenance of the public health, safety or welfare" a public nuisance, "including, but not limited to, any tree constituting a hazard to life and property or harboring insects or disease which are a threat to other trees," and Section 25-313 says "The owner, occupant or agent shall remove the same within 72 hours of notice by the city." Before the city removes anything itself it gives written notice "no less than ten days before the city causes removals to be made," unless there is imminent risk, and an appeal "shall operate as a stay to the imposition of any lien until the matter has been finally determined."
- Storm debris splits at the curb. The city FAQ: "The Street Division will pick up what has fallen in the street. The tree or limb will be cut off at the curb or ditch line. The rest of the tree or limb is the property owner's responsibility to dispose of."
- The Tree Board is advisory and has no permit power. Five members, three-year terms, meeting quarterly on the third Thursday of January, April, July and October, with duties limited to "providing recommendations on the manner in which regulations are applied to planting, maintaining, and removing trees, shrubs, and other plants within the city," recommending ordinances and helping with the Arbor Day proclamation.
- The zoning landscape exemption for houses is partial, not total: single-family residential developments "shall not be required to comply with buffer requirements," which excuses buffers rather than the whole landscape article. The landscape plan requirement to show "The location of all trees to be preserved" is a disclosure rule attached to site plans and subdivision plats, not a preservation mandate, and none of it reaches an existing homeowner on a developed lot.
- Land disturbance permits do not catch routine tree removal. The stormwater definition ties land disturbance to activities subject to a state permit and to common plans of development of an acre or more, so this is development scale only.
- Missouri law punishes cutting a tree that is not yours. RSMo 537.340 awards treble damages for cutting down, injuring or destroying "any tree placed or growing for use, shade or ornament" on another person's land, and the claimant "need not prove negligence or intent."
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.
- — One sentence in the code, read in isolation, appears to ban far more than the city enforces, and it is reported both ways rather than reconciled. Section 25-310(c), an anti-vandalism provision carried over from the 1969 Code, says "no person shall cut down, lop, take or otherwise destroy any ornamental or shade tree, shrub, flowers, bulb or fruit standing or growing on any private or public ground or any street, sidewalk, park sidewalk, promenade or park, parkway or boulevard in the city." Read literally that would bar all ornamental and shade tree removal citywide with no permit mechanism to authorize it. Read in context it is a trespass provision: its first sentence is limited to trees "on premises in possession of another," and its near-identical twin in the offenses-against-property chapter is headed "Injuring trees, shrubs, flowers" and qualified by "willfully and without right." No city page, FAQ, permit form or fee schedule treats private tree removal as regulated, which supports the second reading, but no city statement expressly says no permit is needed. Call Public Works at 816-271-4653 if you want it in writing before removing a mature ornamental or shade tree.
- — Whether Public Works charges the $25 trim permit fee when the work is removal rather than trimming. The code section says "trim"; the city's own form combines them as one checkbox reading "Tree Trimming-Removal." Reported both ways.
- — The dollar amount of a general city business license for a tree service. The license fee schedule has no arborist, tree or landscaping line item, and the catch-all section fills the gap administratively.
- — Whether the $17, $25 and $25 code fees are current in practice. They are the amounts in the codified text as of Supplement No. 8, but no published Public Works fee sheet could be located to cross-check.
- — Tree City USA status or any urban forestry management plan. The phrase returns nothing in the code and the Tree Board page does not mention it.
- — Historic district review. St. Joseph has historic preservation programs, but no tree or landscape provision was found inside them and the historic preservation chapter was not audited for a landscape-feature review trigger.
- — A stale cross-reference in the current code: Section 25-303 still cites the original General Ordinance No. 938 for the Tree Board, and the Article VI footnote still points to a repealed section, even though the board was re-created in Chapter 2 in 2024.
- — Buchanan County rules for unincorporated areas outside the city limits.
Sources
- St. Joseph Code Ch. 25, Art. VI — Trees, full article (Municode)
- St. Joseph Code Sec. 25-268 — Permit and insurance to trim trees (Municode)
- St. Joseph Code Sec. 25-304 — Arborist license and insurance (Municode)
- St. Joseph Code Sec. 25-314 — Dead or diseased trees declared a nuisance (Municode)
- St. Joseph Code Sec. 25-316 — Abatement, tax bill and lien (Municode)
- St. Joseph Code Ch. 2, Art. V, Div. 29 — Tree Board (Municode)
- City of St. Joseph — Public Works and Transportation
- City of St. Joseph — Permits and Licenses (full list)
- City of St. Joseph — Miscellaneous Permit Application (PDF), Tree Trimming-Removal checkbox
- City of St. Joseph — Property Maintenance (dead or diseased trees)
- RSMo 537.340 — Trespass on realty, treble damages