Do you need a permit?
No permit required for most private trees
Youngstown draws the line at the sidewalk. The city says it plainly: "While homeowners are responsible for the trees on their property, trees located between the sidewalk and curb (devil strip) are maintained by the Parks & Recreation Department." Chapter 921 of the codified ordinances covers shade trees, nuisance trees and trees that impede travel or destroy sidewalks — it does not create a removal permit for a tree in your yard.
What's protected in Youngstown
- Trees in the devil strip — the tree lawn between the sidewalk and the curb — which the Parks & Recreation Department maintains
- Shade trees in the public right-of-way, which the code requires be planted in a straight line and kept trimmed
Fees, penalties, and the ordinance
- Ordinance
- Codified Ordinances of Youngstown, Part Nine, Title One, Chapter 921 — Trees and Shrubs (removal of trees impeding travel at 921.01; nuisance trees at 921.02; trimming shade trees at 921.03; penalty at 921.99)
Worth knowing
- Parks and Recreation is the office for street and park trees, open Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Down or dead trees can be reported online through SeeClickFix.
- The Parks Department will not touch a problem tree with overhead power lines running through it. The city directs you to Ohio Edison at (800) 633-4766 first.
- Youngstown Parks publishes a "Consent for Removal of Trees and Waiver of Damages" form — a Release and Indemnification you sign, before a notary, in exchange for being permitted to do work on land controlled by the Park and Recreation Department. It is not a homeowner tree permit; it is a liability release for work on city land.
- The Public Works Department, City Hall 5th Floor, 26 South Phelps Street, is at (330) 742-8800 and publicworks@youngstownohio.gov if your question is about the street or right-of-way rather than the tree itself.
- Youngstown Codified Ordinance 921.01 confirms the scope. It declares a nuisance "any tree growing within the limits of any public street, sidewalk or other public place in the City" that obstructs travel, restricts sewage or water flow, heaves up sidewalks, curbing or pavement, interferes with police or fire signal lines, or blocks the view of a traffic sign or signal. When the Commissioner of Engineering, the Park and Recreation Superintendent, the Chief of Police or the Fire Chief judges such a tree should go, that official cuts it down and removes it. The section reaches trees in public places, not private yards, and it is an abatement power, not a permit.
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 full text of Youngstown Codified Ordinance 921.02, "Certain trees and/or shrubs public nuisances," which is the section most likely to reach a tree on private property. Expect an abatement power rather than a permit, but we could not read it.
- — Any diameter threshold, protected species list or heritage tree designation. Youngstown publishes none.
- — Penalties under Youngstown Codified Ordinance 921.99.
- — Whether Part Eleven, the Planning and Zoning Code, imposes tree retention or landscaping obligations on a developed lot.