Tree Removal Permits in Greenacres

In Greenacres the tree permit is a building permit. Section 16-1249 of the Code of Ordinances calls it a building permit for vegetation removal, and Section 16-1249(a) applies it to destroying, removing or relocating acceptable vegetation not listed in Table 16-1312(a) from any property. Where the property has a homeowners association, a letter of approval from that association is part of the city application rather than a private matter between the board and the owner. 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 16-1249(a) names who it binds before it names what it covers. No person, firm, corporation, association, public agency, or agent or employee shall destroy, remove or relocate the vegetation it describes without first obtaining the permit. An association is named there, and so is an agent or employee, which reaches the management company and the crew as well as the owner of record. The words are any property, so a commercial site, an association common area, a condominium parcel and an institutional campus sit inside the same sentence.

Two things in that sentence are worth settling with the city for the plants in your scope. It opens with the words unless otherwise provided in this article, so the article can qualify what follows. And its subject is acceptable vegetation not listed in Table 16-1312(a), so the section is written around vegetation rather than around trees alone.

The two Palm Beach County articles we read do not create a general permit to remove an ordinary tree, so the city rule is the one that governs a removal. Our Palm Beach County guide sets out what those county articles do reach inside city limits.

Florida Statutes Section 163.045 remains available for a detached single-family residence, on documentation from an arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture or a Florida licensed landscape architect. One caution matters for anyone managing association property. Greenacres has legislated its own definition of what counts as residential property for that statute, and it is narrower than the phrase reads. Whether the route is open on a particular parcel, and on common elements in particular, is something we settle with the city rather than assume from the statute alone. That route is written around a detached single-family residence, so what it reaches on any other property is a question to put to the city rather than one to assume. Treat the building permit for vegetation removal as the starting point and settle the position before work is scheduled.

What Needs a Permit

Section 16-1249(a) uses three verbs: destroy, remove and relocate. Relocating sits alongside taking a tree out, so moving a specimen to another part of the same site is permitted work rather than a landscape change. Destroy sits beside remove in the same sentence, so the section is not written around the tree that leaves the property alone.

Section 16-1249 then sets out three residential situations and requires a building permit for vegetation removal in each of them. A residential development or subdivision with an approved landscape plan and a homeowners association needs the permit. One without an approved landscape plan and with a homeowners association needs the permit. One without an approved landscape plan and without a homeowners association needs the permit.

In the first two of those, a homeowners association letter of approval must be included in the application. The letter therefore has to exist before the application goes in, not after the permit is chased. Where a board meets on a fixed calendar, that meeting sits on the critical path for the whole job, and it is the item to start first.

What It Costs

The number that decides a budget in Greenacres is the replacement planting rather than the permit charge. Where the residential development or subdivision has an approved landscape plan and a homeowners association, paragraph (1) of Section 16-1249 requires each tree removed to be replaced with a new tree that meets City Code requirements, located in accord with the approved landscape plan. That is a tree for tree duty attached to every removal, and the approved plan fixes where the replacement goes.

Where there is no approved landscape plan and there is a homeowners association, paragraph (2) of that section ties replacement to the count on the lot instead. Each tree removed must be replaced if the removal reduces the number of trees on the lot below Code minimums for quantity. The difference between the two is worth pricing before a crew is booked, because one obligation follows every tree and the other follows the tally.

Section 16-1245 supplies the count where no plan sets one. On property which predates the site plan approval process, or where there is no clear minimum tree inventory on an approved landscape or other approved plan, the section requires a minimum of one tree for every thirty lineal feet and one shrub for every twenty-four lineal inches. For older property with no plan on record, that density is the benchmark a code officer measures against, and it is the basis for quoting a remediation planting.

This page publishes no dollar figure for Greenacres. The provisions above establish the permit obligation and the replacement duty rather than the amount, and the charge the city applies to a building permit for vegetation removal is settled with the city. We confirm it before quoting a job, because a board budgets the figure it can see and a number written here without that confirmation would be worse than none.

What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit

The replacement duty in Section 16-1249 is written around the tree removed, so it does not lapse because the tree has already gone. Where an approved landscape plan exists it still runs to each tree removed, and where none exists it still runs to the shortfall against the code count. On older property with no plan on record, the Section 16-1245 density is what that shortfall is measured against.

What Greenacres applies on top of that for a removal carried out without the building permit is settled by the city, and this page states no fine, no multiplier and no dollar figure for it. Put the question to Greenacres before work is scheduled rather than after a notice arrives, because the replacement obligation attaches from the moment the tree comes out.

What to Check With Your Contractor

Section 16-1249(a) names an agent or employee in the same breath as the owner, so a contractor removing vegetation for you is inside the prohibition too. Ask whether the permit has been issued rather than whether it has been applied for, and ask to see it before equipment arrives. Two further items belong in the scope rather than a later change order. The homeowners association letter of approval, because on a property with an association the application is incomplete without it. And the replacement planting, because a quote written around removal alone leaves out the tree Section 16-1249 will call for.

What to Do Next

Three things settle a Greenacres job before it is scheduled. Which of the three situations in Section 16-1249 the property sits in, because that decides whether replacement follows every tree or follows a shortfall against the code count. Whether an approved landscape plan is on file with the city and what tree inventory it fixes. And what the city currently charges for the building permit for vegetation removal.

We settle those before quoting. We inspect the vegetation in scope, record species, size and condition, coordinate the homeowners association letter of approval with the board, prepare the arborist report where the application calls for one, file the building permit for vegetation removal, and handle the replacement planting where it is required. 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, 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 Greenacres. See landscaping services in Greenacres.

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

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