Tree Removal Permits in Doral
In Doral the tree permit is a county permit, and the city will not take your application without it already in hand. Section 38-22 requires the applicant to include with the application an effective tree removal permit obtained pursuant to the Miami-Dade County Code of Ordinances, together with the plan for tree and root protection under that code. That one word, effective, moves the county onto the critical path rather than alongside it. 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?
Section 71-5 states the position without hedging. Tree removal permits and natural forest community vegetation removal permits are required prior to the removal of trees, specimen trees, or any vegetation in a natural forest community, pursuant to the county code, and the county Department of Environmental Resources Management is responsible for administering and enforcing those provisions. Doral does not run a parallel permit of its own, so the counterparty on the tree question is the county rather than the city.
That is worth knowing before anyone is sent to city hall for a tree permit, because they will be sent back. What the city does run is a review that sits on top of the county permit, and the sections below set out what it asks for.
The county substance is on our Miami-Dade County guide: how the permit reaches every property, how replacement is calculated by canopy area rather than by tree count, what the single-family yard exemption turns on, and the construction protection standard that binds a preserved tree. On a Doral property that guide is the operative document and this page is the local overlay.
What Needs a Permit
Four separate provisions in the Doral code point outward to the county, which is why the deferral is structural rather than a single cross-reference. Section 71-5 requires the county permit before removal. Section 71-4 requires plans showing trees to be removed, relocated or preserved in accordance with the county tree provisions. Section 71-243 requires specimen trees, native vegetation and natural forest communities to be preserved to the maximum extent possible under the county code. And Section 38-22 requires the county permit to accompany the city application.
One of those reaches work that is not tree work at all. Section 38-33 prohibits installing facilities or utility poles in the public rights-of-way without a tree permit issued in accordance with the county code. A telecommunications or utility installation in the right-of-way is therefore inside the tree permitting system on its own terms, and a contractor who has never thought of a pole installation as tree work can walk into that.
A note on the section numbering, because correspondence here will use both. Doral cites the county tree permit as Section 24-60 throughout its code. The county permit section this project read is numbered 24-49, and the county's own landscape ordinance also uses 24-60. Both numbers are in circulation for the same requirement, so a letter citing one and a code citing the other is not necessarily a contradiction.
What It Costs
Because the permit is the county's, the cost is the county's too, and the number that decides a budget is the replacement obligation rather than the fee. The county calculates replacement by canopy area in square feet rather than by counting trees, and a specimen tree doubles the requirement. That method, and the two defined routes that reduce it, are set out on the county guide.
On the fee itself we quote no figure. Miami-Dade tree permit fees are established by separate administrative order approved by the Board of County Commissioners rather than printed in the code, so the amount has to come from the county before it reaches a proposal. A rate published by any city is that city's rate, not the county's, and the two should not be substituted for each other.
The sequencing rule has a cost of its own that does not appear as a line item. Because the county permit has to be effective before the city application is complete, the county review time is added to the front of the project rather than run in parallel with the city review. On a development schedule that is weeks rather than days, and it is the kind of thing discovered late by anyone who assumed the two tracks ran together.
What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit
The exposure sits with the county, since the county administers and enforces these provisions in Doral. The county makes it unlawful to do tree removal work or to effectively destroy any tree without its permit, and that reaches work which leaves a trunk standing, so heavy pruning can fall inside it. The county guide sets out what that means and how the enforcement question is handled.
On the city side, a removal carried out without the county permit also leaves the city application incomplete, because Section 38-22 conditions it on an effective county permit. So the same act creates two problems: the county enforcement question, and a city submission that cannot be completed until the first is resolved.
What to Check With Your Contractor
Ask which permit a proposal is actually pulling, and ask for the county permit number rather than a promise to obtain one. In a city that conditions its own application on an effective county permit, a proposal that mentions only a city filing has not been through the sequence, and the discovery point is the counter rather than the site.
Ask about the tree and root protection plan as a separate deliverable. Section 38-22 names it alongside the permit, under the county code, so it is a document the application requires rather than a description of how the crew intends to work. The county specification for those protections, including the barrier standard, is on the county guide.
And on a right-of-way job, ask whether the tree permit has been obtained even where no tree is coming out. Section 38-33 attaches the requirement to installing facilities or utility poles rather than to removing anything, which is a sequence a utility contractor may not expect.
What to Do Next
Three things settle a Doral job before it is priced. That the county permit is the instrument and how long the county review will take, since it sits at the front of the schedule rather than beside it. What the county replacement obligation will be at the canopy in scope. And whether any part of the work touches the public rights-of-way, since that brings the tree permit requirement with it independently.
We settle those before quoting. We inspect the trees, document species, size and condition, prepare the arborist report where the application calls for one, file the county permit and obtain the current fee from the county, produce the tree and root protection plan the city application requires, and file the city submission once the county permit is effective. 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 Doral. See landscaping services in Doral.
The information presented on this page was accurate as of 24 August 2026.
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