Tree Removal Permits in Lauderdale Lakes

In Lauderdale Lakes the tree permit list begins before removal. Section 1003.3(a) requires a tree permit prior to encroaching upon a tree drip line, and puts that act on the same list as cutting the tree down. The trigger is written around the act rather than the diameter, and it reaches any tree. 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?

Two layers sit over a tree on a Lauderdale Lakes property. Broward County enforces Article XIV here, and a county Tree Removal License is required. The city runs a full scheme of its own on top of that, in Chapter 10 of the code, Landscaping Requirements and Tree Conservation, which carries the permit, the mitigation, the penalties and a tree trust fund. Section 1003.3(c) also contemplates outside permits in some circumstances, making a property owner responsible for obtaining the necessary permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Broward County Office of Natural Resource Protection in addition to the city permit. The provision we read does not state which circumstances bring those in, so we establish that with the city for the property rather than assume an ordinary removal carries them.

Section 1003.3(a) is written to reach any person, natural or corporate, and any tree. A commercial site, an association common area, a condominium parcel, a hotel or an institutional campus therefore sits inside it on the general terms. Chapter 10 does carry an 18 inch measurement, but that figure defines a specimen tree rather than the permit trigger.

The single-family position is worth knowing, because a board member may be asked about it. Section 1002(d) waives the landscape plan requirement in residential single-family districts. The waiver is of the plan. Section 1002 is the section that designates protected trees, specimen trees and historic trees, and those designations continue to apply in the same districts.

What Needs a Permit

Section 1003.3(a) requires a tree permit before any person, natural or corporate, encroaches upon a tree drip line, or cuts down, destroys, removes, relocates or destructively damages any tree. It reaches causing any of those things as well as doing them, so a board that instructs a contractor is inside the section. Drip line encroachment sits at the head of that list, which means work that never touches the trunk can still be work that needs the permit.

A specimen tree is defined in Section 1003 as one with a DBH of 18 inches or greater, and the definition carves out four categories. The first is non-native fruit trees cultivated or grown for the specific purpose of producing edible fruit, including mangos, avocados and citrus. The next two are nuisance trees and all multi-trunk palms. The fourth is a tree in poor condition or form, as determined by the city using the Guide to Judging Plant Condition from the International Society of Arboriculture.

How the diameter is measured decides which trees reach that figure. Section 1003 defines DBH as the measurement of a tree's trunk diameter in inches at breast height, which it sets at four and one-half feet above ground level. For a multi-trunk tree, the DBH is the sum of the diameters of the individual trunks. Under that rule a multi-trunk tree can reach 18 inches on the sum while each separate trunk sits below it.

The application goes to the community development department. Section 1003.3(d) requires it to include a legal description of the property, and a map showing the size and location of the site where the tree removal or land clearing activities are to be conducted. The department may require the submission of a tree survey designating those trees which are proposed to be preserved or relocated. On a property with mature canopy, that survey is the part of the package that takes time to prepare.

What It Costs

Replacement is the number that decides a budget here, rather than the application fee. Section 1003 defines mitigation as the replacement of trees that have been removed or damaged, and requires it to offset any environmental impacts caused by the unlawful removal or effective destruction of any tree. Replacement then takes one of two forms. It is either new trees on a caliper inch replacement, or a monetary value to be determined by the city.

The fees themselves run into a dedicated account. Section 1003.8 establishes the Lauderdale Lakes Tree Preservation Account, a trust that receives tree removal fees and penalty monies, and that money is used solely for funding tree replacement on public property within the city. The fee amount is set by the city rather than printed in Chapter 10, so we confirm the current figure with the Community Development Department before quoting rather than publish one we cannot cite.

What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit

Section 1005 sets the exposure. Each violation of the code is punishable in a court of competent jurisdiction by a fine of no more than $500.00. Three further items sit on top of that fine. They are the cost of replacement of the trees removed from the site, the costs associated with investigation and prosecution, and any equitable remedies deemed reasonable and proper by the court. The court may measure that replacement cost from the removed tree's own trunk measurement, or by other measures it considers appropriate.

The counting is what moves the total. The removal, relocation or destruction of each tree for which a tree permit is required, drip line encroachment included, constitutes a separate offense under the code. Each tree to be protected may be the subject of individual enforcement. A crew working along a row of trees in one afternoon therefore produces a count rather than a single charge.

Liability lands on the property owner, and Section 1005 says so directly. The owner of any property where a tree has been cut down, destroyed, removed, relocated or destructively damaged is held strictly liable for a violation. The code names four ways out. Three are an act of God, an act of war, and development activity carried out under an approved tree permit. The fourth is damage by vandals or trespassers. It holds where the owner has filed a police report for the incident and had taken reasonable security measures to prevent unauthorized access.

Two further consequences arrive before any court date. The enforcement agency shall immediately issue an order to cease and desist any work being carried out in violation of the section, or of any permit conditions issued under it. Failure to follow the procedures the code requires is then grounds for withholding or revoking site plan approval, building permits, occupancy permits, or other approvals necessary to continue development. On a site in the middle of construction, the second of those reaches well past the trees.

What to Check With Your Contractor

Chapter 10 defines pruning by reference to a published standard. Prune means the removal of dead, dying, diseased, weak or objectionable branches, in a manner consistent with ANSI A-300 as incorporated into the code and amended from time to time. That is a definition of the term as the chapter uses it. The sections we read do not set out a separate clause requiring trimming to meet that standard, so what a routine pruning scope owes the code here is something we settle with the city rather than state from the definition alone. The chapter also defines hatracking. It is flat-cutting the top or sides of a tree, severing the leader or leaders, or internodal cutting within the canopy. It also covers trimming to a degree that removes the normal tree canopy and disfigures the tree.

Two specifications belong in a scope of work. Relocation means transplanting plant material to a location acceptable to the city landscape architect or designee, following proper horticultural and arboricultural procedures that include root pruning for a period of at least six weeks. A relocation is therefore scheduled in weeks rather than days. On staking, the use of nails, wire, rope or any other method that damages the tree or palm is prohibited. Guys and staking material come off in no case more than one year after planting, and stabilization is to National Arborist Association Standards.

One filing rule is worth checking before a package is assembled. Section 1001 provides that a landscape plan required to be submitted for governmental approval may only be submitted by the actual person owning the property. The alternative is a person registered as a landscape architect in the state under F.S. Chapter 481, Part II, or a person otherwise exempt under it. The filing therefore sits with the owner or a registered landscape architect.

What to Do Next

Three things are worth settling before tree work is scheduled in Lauderdale Lakes. Whether anything in the scope reaches inside a drip line, since Section 1003.3(a) puts encroachment on the same list as removal. What the city will set as replacement, in caliper inches or in money. And whether any tree in scope meets the 18 inch specimen definition once the trunks of a multi-trunk tree are added together.

We settle those before quoting. We inspect the trees, record species, diameter and condition, prepare the tree survey and the arborist report where the application calls for one, and file with the community development department. Our ISA Certified Arborist (NY-6948A) produces that report. 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 Lauderdale Lakes. See landscaping services in Lauderdale Lakes.

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

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