Tree Removal Permits in Miami Lakes

In Miami Lakes the count is the thing to understand first. Section 42-11 of the town code provides that each tree removed without a tree removal permit shall constitute a separate and distinct violation and shall be the subject of individual enforcement. A clearing job on a common area is not one problem with one outcome. It is one violation per tree, each enforced on its own. 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 enforcement provision is drawn against the tree rather than against a category of property. It speaks of each tree removed without a tree removal permit. An association common area, a condominium parcel, a commercial site, a hotel or a school campus sits inside it on the same terms as anything else in the town. What changes from one property to the next is the number of trees in scope, and that number is what the section multiplies.

Miami Lakes is a Miami-Dade County municipality, and the county tree rules run as a second layer over the town's own chapter, which our Miami-Dade County tree removal permit guide sets out. A municipality is entitled to be stricter than the county, so which layer settles a particular tree is a question for the town before work is scheduled.

What Needs a Permit

The town's approval instrument is defined in Section 42-2. A certificate of approval means a written document permitting tree removal or development activity within an area identified. Removal and development activity sit inside the same definition, so the instrument covers a tree coming out on its own and a tree coming out as part of a project. Section 42-11 then refers to a tree removal permit, which is the approval a removal is measured against afterwards.

What brings a particular tree inside that permit, the size, the species and the circumstances of the work, is settled with the town before a scope is priced. We put that question in writing at the start of a job. The counting rule makes the answer worth having early, because an assumption applied across a row of trees repeats once per tree.

The code also defines hatracking, and the definition is written as a measurement. Hatracking is defined as flat-cutting the top of a tree, severing the leader or leaders, or the removal of any branch three inches or greater in diameter at any point other than the branch collar. The test in that third limb is where the cut is made and how thick the branch is. What the town attaches to a cut meeting the definition is a question for the town.

Section 42-2 also fixes who a certified arborist is. Certified Arborist means a person who is certified by the International Society of Arboriculture and is an individual engaged in the profession of arboriculture who, through experience, education, and related training, possesses the competence to provide for or supervise the management of trees and other woody plants. Where the town's process calls for a certified arborist, that is the test, and our ISA Certified Arborist (NY-6948A) meets it.

What It Costs

Start with the obligation that scales, because it is the one that decides a budget. Where work proceeds during an appeal, an additional fine is payable to the Town's Tree Trust for each separate violation, and Section 42-11 counts a violation for each tree. An amount that looks modest against a single tree is multiplied by the trees in scope. That amount is held by the town, so we confirm it before quoting and put no figure for it on this page.

The appeal itself carries a fee, and the code sets lower ones for particular appellants. An abutting property owner, a conservation nonprofit and a homeowners association each appeal on a reduced fee. Those amounts are the town's to state, and a board weighing whether to contest a decision should ask for the reduced fee by name.

The application side carries costs of its own. Section 13-1701 requires a tree disposition survey prepared by a professional surveyor for permit applications, or an initial inspection of plant material on the property and the adjacent swales and medians. Fees attach to that work. The surveyor is a separate engagement from the arborist report, so a budget built on the report alone is short by the survey. We confirm the current amounts with the town before a proposal goes out.

What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit

Section 42-11 states it directly. Each tree removed without a tree removal permit shall constitute a separate and distinct violation and shall be the subject of individual enforcement. Nothing in that sentence gathers a job into a single case. Ten trees taken out in one afternoon is ten violations, each enforced on its own. That is the shape of the exposure on a common area, a buffer strip or a parking field.

Enforcement is not confined to what a complaint reports. The department may inspect the property against the approved permit, so the work a crew actually performed is measured against what the permit authorized. A scope that grew on site shows up in that comparison, and it shows up tree by tree. An appeal is available, and proceeding with the work while it is pending adds the Tree Trust fine described above, counted again for each separate violation.

What to Check With Your Contractor

Put the pruning specification in writing and measure it against the definition of hatracking before the crew arrives. The removal of any branch three inches or greater in diameter at any point other than the branch collar is inside that definition, as is flat-cutting the top of a tree and severing the leader or leaders. Those are descriptions of technique, so what settles the question is how a crew cuts rather than what the work was called when it was booked.

Ask which credential each part of the application needs. The code defines a certified arborist by International Society of Arboriculture certification and by competence to provide for or supervise the management of trees and other woody plants. It separately names a professional surveyor for the tree disposition survey. Those are two different engagements on the same application, and both sit in front of the work rather than after it.

Check how far the scope reaches. The initial inspection route covers plant material on the property and the adjacent swales and medians. A scope drawn at the property line can come up short of what the town looks at. Section 13-1701 sits in the landscape requirements and states the obligation for permit applications. Whether it attaches to a standalone removal on a built property or to an application filed with a development is worth settling with the town. Then hold the crew to the permit as issued, because a tree that came out without cover is counted on its own under Section 42-11.

What to Do Next

Before tree work is scheduled in Miami Lakes, four things are worth settling. What the town's tree chapter sets as the trigger for a tree removal permit. Whether the pruning scope meets the definition of hatracking. Whether the application calls for a tree disposition survey or the inspection alternative. And what the town's current amounts are, for those fees, for an appeal and for the Tree Trust fine.

We settle all four before quoting. We inspect the trees, document species, size and condition, prepare the arborist report where the application calls for one, arrange the survey where Section 13-1701 requires it, file the permit, and keep the work on site inside what the permit authorized so the per-tree counting rule has nothing to reach. 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 Miami Lakes. See landscaping services in Miami Lakes.

The information presented on this page was accurate as of 24 August 2026.

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