Tree Removal Permits in Coral Springs

In Coral Springs the tree permit reaches any tree, whatever its size, and it reaches work that never touches the tree. Section 212 of the Land Development Code requires a permit before anyone cuts down, destroys, removes, relocates or destructively damages a tree, and before anyone encroaches upon a tree's dripline. Parking a vehicle inside a dripline is named in the code as encroachment. 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?

Coral Springs holds a certified tree ordinance and enforces it in lieu of county enforcement, so the city is the counterparty on a tree here, though that certification is not permanent. Section 212 is written by act and by person rather than by property type, and it reaches any tree. A commercial site, an association common area, a condominium parcel, a hotel and an institutional campus are read against the same words.

The residential position runs through the county. Broward County Section 27-408(a)(3)(c) exempts removal of any tree on owner-occupied residential property of one acre or less developed for detached single-family or duplex use. Previously preserved or replaced trees, and historical or specimen trees, are excepted from it. We searched the city tree and landscape chapters and found nothing that treats single-family property differently. A certified municipality administers its own program and may be stricter than the county, so which rule governs a house is worth settling with the city first.

What Needs a Permit

The permit provision names the acts. A tree permit is required before any person, natural or corporate, encroaches upon a tree dripline, or cuts down, destroys, removes, relocates or destructively damages any tree. It also covers causing any of those things to happen, so instructing a contractor sits inside the section as squarely as doing the work. The property owner or their authorized agent applies for the permit from the city manager or their designee, before any tree removal, relocation or dripline encroachment.

Dripline encroachment is defined as any activity that has the effect of causing soil compaction, injury to lower limbs, grade change, contamination of soil, or damage to the root system. The definition then names acts that count. They include parking of vehicles, heavy earth moving or grading equipment, placement of construction materials, excavation and filling, trenching, and the exposure of paints, oils or chemicals within a tree's dripline. Routine maintenance activities are specifically excluded from it.

Land clearing is a second permit, and it comes from a different official. Under Section 1311, no land clearing operations shall begin until a permit has been issued by the office of the city engineer. Each permit is issued for a designated number of calendar days based on the scope of the operation, so the calendar window is a term of the permit alongside the scope.

The two permits are tied together at the point of issue. As a condition precedent, each land clearing applicant must acknowledge and demonstrate compliance with the city code and the land development code as it relates to trees within the permit area. Removal of or damage to trees in that area is subject to Section 212. The land clearing definition itself excludes three things: selective removal of non-native shrub species where the soil is left relatively undisturbed, removal of dead trees, and normal mowing operations.

Specimen and historic trees are designated by resolution rather than by size. The director of development services may recommend from time to time that certain trees in the city be designated specimen or historic. The city manager reviews that recommendation and may designate them by resolution under Section 250836. Whether a tree on your property carries a designation is therefore a question for the city, not one a crew can settle on site.

What It Costs

The figure that decides a budget here is the bond, not a filing fee. Section 212 requires security in a form acceptable to and payable to the City of Coral Springs. Its amount equals the fair market value of the replacement trees to be relocated or whose dripline may be encroached upon. The bond is sized from replacement value, so a scope that only encroaches on driplines can still carry one.

That fair market value is established by resolution of the city commission each year, based upon published trade wholesale price lists. The appropriate multiplier for maintenance, installation, warranty and other costs is factored in. The figure moves annually and sits in a resolution rather than in the code, so we confirm the current year's values with the city before quoting.

The bond is also given as a guarantee of replacement for a period of one year. The security stands behind the replacement trees for that year, which puts part of the cost of a permitted job after the removal itself. A board approving a removal is approving a replacement obligation that runs for a year after the work.

What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit

The code fixes the sequence. The tree permit has to be in hand before the removal, the relocation or the dripline encroachment. Land clearing operations may not begin until the city engineer has issued the land clearing permit. The enforcement terms sit inside Section 212 itself, and we confirm the city's current position before advising a board what an unpermitted removal would cost it.

What is worth understanding is how the trigger is met. Encroachment is defined by the activity. The conduct that puts a site outside a permit can be a parked vehicle, a trench, construction materials set down under a canopy, or a change of grade. A crew that came to run irrigation or to regrade a swale can be doing work that needs the tree permit, without touching a tree at all.

What to Check With Your Contractor

Three things belong in a scope of work here. Whether the crew intends to park, stage materials, trench or change grade inside a dripline, because those acts are named in the definition of encroachment. Whether the pruning specification risks overlifting, which the code defines as removal of the majority of the inner lateral branches and foliage, displacing weight and mass to the branch ends. An altered live crown ratio may be considered evidence of it. And who is filing, since the application comes from the owner or their authorized agent.

The code also fixes how a trunk is measured for the paperwork. For a tree with less than four and one-half feet of clear trunk, the diameter is taken on the largest leader, measured four and one-half feet above ground level. For a multi-trunk tree it is the sum of the diameters of the individual trunks.

What to Do Next

Four things are worth settling before tree work is scheduled in Coral Springs. Whether anything in the scope enters a dripline, since that alone requires the tree permit. Whether the job also needs a land clearing permit from the office of the city engineer. Whether any tree in scope has been designated specimen or historic by resolution. And what the current year's fair market values are, since the bond is sized from them. The code also carries a tree variance at Section 127, and we confirm its terms with the city.

We settle those first. We inspect the trees, document species, size and condition, and prepare the arborist report where one is required. We file the tree permit and, where the scope needs it, the land clearing permit, and handle replacement planting where the code requires it. 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, religious campuses, hotels, multifamily rental, self-storage, dealerships, retail outparcels, marinas, mobile home communities, municipal grounds and mixed-use. Call (954) 583-4752 or request a proposal.

TWQ Landscaping maintains commercial and community association property in Coral Springs. See landscaping services in Coral Springs.

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

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