Tree Removal Permits in Coconut Creek

In Coconut Creek the rule is written as a prohibition. Section 13-445(b) of the Land Development Code states that no existing vegetation shall be destroyed or removed without the consent of the city by permit. The same sentence excepts vegetation creating an imminent danger to public safety because of disease or damage, and vegetation otherwise exempted by state law. What is regulated is existing vegetation. TWQ Landscaping prepares and files these applications, and our ISA Certified Arborist (NY-6948A) produces the supporting report where one is required.

Does This Apply to Your Property?

The exemptions that answer the prohibition are listed separately at Section 13-448. A commercial site, an association common area, a condominium parcel, a hotel or an institutional campus is inside the prohibition unless an exemption reaches it. City-licensed nurseries, botanical gardens and commercial groves are exempt for stock grown for sale. Coconut Creek holds a certified tree ordinance and enforces it in lieu of county enforcement, so the city permit governs.

The residential exemption at Section 13-448 sets three conditions, and all three are required. Item (2) covers removal of any tree on owner-occupied residential properties of one acre or less developed for detached single-family and duplex usage. A rented house fails the first condition. A house on a lot larger than an acre fails the second. Those tests settle the question when a board member is asked about a home in the community.

Six categories are then written out of that exemption. Trees previously preserved, relocated or replaced as a condition of granting a tree removal permit. Historical or special status category trees. Site plan required landscape buffers located on private property. Plantings in site plan required landscape easements located on private property. Trees planted on public or private property with the intent of providing a consistent street tree theme or image. And trees planted on public or private ingress and egress rights of way or easements with that same intent.

Four of those six describe where a tree stands rather than what it is. A tree in a required landscape buffer, in a landscape easement, or planted to a consistent street tree theme sits outside the exemption. That holds even on an owner-occupied lot of under an acre. On a lot in a planned subdivision that can be most of the trees on the property. Establish where a tree stands before treating it as exempt.

What Needs a Permit

Section 13-445 sits four levels down in the code, at Chapter 13, Article III Zoning Regulations, Division 4 Accessory Use Standards, Subdivision IV Landscape Standards and Requirements. The section carves out nuisance trees that were not part of the approved landscape plan. Where nuisance trees are removed ahead of land clearing, tree removal, clearing and grubbing or a burn permit, their location must be noted on a plan with that permit.

Two routes let vegetation come out ahead of a permit, and both are evidence rules. Section 13-445(b) reaches vegetation creating an imminent danger to public safety because of disease or damage. Section 13-448 reaches a tree diseased or injured such that it poses an unacceptable risk to persons or property. The second route is conditional: the owner has to obtain documentation, photographs or otherwise, that the condition existed prior to the removal.

Both routes run to a deadline. Documentation of the condition must be presented to the city within forty-eight hours after removal. Section 13-448 applies that same deadline to natural forest communities, specimen trees and historic trees. Two days is the entire window, and it opens after the tree is down. Photograph the condition first, because once the tree is removed the condition can no longer be shown.

Protection runs by designation. The definitions in Subdivision IV describe a protected tree, palm or plant as a locally unique example of its species that is practically irreplaceable. The qualities named are size, shape, character, age, historic significance and aesthetic value, and the status holds as declared by the city commission. So the question on a tree is whether the city commission has declared it.

What It Costs

The permit fee is not settled by the sections that create the permit requirement. We confirm the current amount with the city before quoting rather than publish a figure. One number is worth flagging.

The obligations that move a budget sit around the permit. Section 13-448 is titled Preservation and Protection of Trees and Tree Preservation Trust Account. A trust account therefore sits alongside the exemptions in that section, and its terms belong in the budget conversation. Where a franchised utility removes trees, the code requires cooperation with the city to preserve them by relocation or replacement in the same vicinity. Each tree removed is to be replaced from the Recommended Tree List or the Recommended Trees Adjacent to Power Lines list maintained by the City's Urban Forester.

Two specification items decide what replacement planting is possible. Section 13-444 requires adequate soil area with a minimum depth of three feet for districts required to provide trees and palms under other sections. On a structural slab, a podium deck or compacted fill, that depth settles whether a tree can be planted at all. Section 13-446 requires landscape plans drawn at a scale not less than one inch to fifty feet.

What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit

What follows an unpermitted removal is not settled by the sections that create the permit requirement. We confirm the consequence with the city rather than state a figure here. What those sections establish is evidentiary. The imminent danger route and the diseased or injured route depend on documentation of a condition that no longer exists once the tree is down. A removal without that record, or without the filing inside forty-eight hours, falls outside the exemption it relied on.

The code also defines effectively destroying a tree in terms that reach site practice. It covers a grade change above the critical root zone or around the trunk. It covers damage intentionally inflicted that permits infection or pest infestation, the application of herbicides or other chemical agents, and intentional fire damage. It covers a trunk wound that is fifty percent or greater than the circumference of the trunk. It covers removal of sufficient canopy to cause the unnatural decline of the tree or palm.

What to Check With Your Contractor

Caliper and diameter breast height are taken differently, so put the code's own measures in the scope of work. Caliper is measured six inches from the ground on trees up to and including four inches in caliper. On larger trees it is measured twelve inches above the ground. Diameter breast height is measured at four and one half feet above the ground. Where trees are kept to earn a landscape credit, a survey is required giving species, approximate height and caliper, and the location and condition of the vegetation relied on.

What to Do Next

Four things are worth settling before tree work is scheduled. Whether each tree in scope stands in a site plan required landscape buffer or easement, or was planted to a street tree theme. Whether the city commission has declared any of them protected. Whether the condition of a tree said to be dangerous is documented now, before anything is cut. And what the city's current fee and trust account terms are.

We settle those before quoting. We inspect the trees, record species, caliper, diameter breast height and condition, and prepare the arborist report where one is required. We file the permit, document any condition relied on for an exemption, and plant replacements to the soil depth the code sets. TWQ Landscaping handles tree permitting for the properties we maintain across Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade: community associations and condominiums, commercial and industrial sites, medical and senior living campuses, schools, hotels, multifamily rental and municipal grounds. Call (954) 583-4752 or request a proposal.

TWQ Landscaping maintains commercial and community association property in Coconut Creek. See landscaping services in Coconut Creek.

The information presented on this page was accurate as of 23 August 2026.

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