Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Toledo's tree permit is tied to location, and the code draws the line at your property line. TMC 917.01 requires a written permit to plant, move, spray, trim, cut or otherwise disturb any tree or shrub "along any street or public way in the City or in or upon any public park or public ground." A tree standing in your own yard is not covered. Permits, where they are required, are free.
What's protected in Toledo
- Any tree or shrub along a street or public way, including the tree lawn
- Any tree or shrub in or upon a public park or public ground
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Fee
- Free. TMC 917.06: "All permits for which provisions in this chapter are made shall be issued without requirement of any fee."
- Ordinance
- Toledo Municipal Code Part Nine, Title One, Chapter 917 — Trees (permit requirement at TMC 917.01; conditional replanting at 917.02; no fee at 917.06)
Worth knowing
- TMC 917.01 reads: "No person, firm or corporation shall hereafter plant, move, spray, fertilize, brace, trim, do surgery work, cut above or below ground, cut any branch or root therefrom or otherwise disturb any tree or shrub along any street or public way in the City or in or upon any public park or public ground ... without first obtaining a written permit for such work from the Commissioner of Parks, Forestry and Open Space Planning."
- A removal permit can come with strings: under TMC 917.02 the Commissioner may condition it on planting an approved replacement, and failing to plant that replacement is itself a violation.
- When you report a tree concern to Engage Toledo, an inspector decides whose tree it is. The city's published process says the inspector will "determine the tree is on private property, and therefore the responsibility of the property owner," and close the request.
- Toledo's Forestry operation manages an inventory of over 90,000 city trees and removes about 1,700 a year.
- Toledo has been a Tree City USA community since 1979 and has an Urban Forestry Commission, created by ordinance on March 13, 1990. The Commission is advisory; it does not issue removal permits.
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.
- — Any diameter threshold. Toledo's chapter turns on where the tree stands, not its size.
- — The text of TMC 917.08, "Certain trees declared public nuisances," which is the section most likely to reach a tree on private property. Expect the city to be able to order removal of a hazardous or diseased tree even though no permit is needed to take one down voluntarily.
- — Penalties under TMC 917.99.
- — A direct phone line for the Commissioner of Parks, Forestry and Open Space Planning. The city routes tree contacts through Engage Toledo.