Tree Removal Permits in Parkland
Parkland sets its permit trigger at two inches of caliper. Section 95-1010 makes it unlawful to clear land, cut down, destroy, move or effectively destroy through damaging any tree that has attained that dimension, without first obtaining a permit. The prohibition binds any person, organization, association or corporation, and any agent or representative. It reaches them directly or indirectly, so a board that hires the work out sits inside it alongside the crew. 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 chapter names four classifications of real property that it reaches. All vacant and undeveloped property. All property in all zoning classifications that is intended to be developed. The yard, parking and open space areas of all developed property. And all property where there is to be any addition or alteration of a substantial nature. The third of those reaches a finished, occupied site, so a community common area, a parking field or an institutional campus is inside the chapter.
Parkland holds a certified tree ordinance and enforces it in lieu of county enforcement, so the city is the authority the application goes to. That certification is not permanent, so the current position is worth confirming with the city. One exemption sits on the development side. Property that had received site plan approval as of the effective date of the amending ordinance is exempt from the section, provided that approval remains valid and is not amended. Amending the site plan forfeits it.
Section 95-1010 also carries the state hazardous tree route in the city's own words, and it runs through a credential. For pruning, trimming or removal of a tree on a single-family residential lot that poses an unacceptable risk to persons or property, the code excuses notice, application, approval, permits, fees and mitigation. The condition is that the property owner holds documentation from an arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture, or a Florida licensed landscape architect, verifying that risk.
The code then defines the test. A tree poses an unacceptable risk if removal is the only means of practically mitigating its risk below moderate. The method is fixed as well, as the tree risk assessment procedures in Best Management Practices, Tree Risk Assessment, Second Edition (2017), as amended. The credential named there is the one our ISA Certified Arborist (NY-6948A) holds. Within the same section, the sentence granting the route is written with the words acceptable risk while the defining sentence says unacceptable, and that is worth settling with the city.
What Needs a Permit
Felling is one of five acts the section names. Clearing land, cutting down, destroying and moving are joined by effectively destroying a tree through damaging it. Work that harms a tree without taking it down therefore sits in the same section as removal. Two administrative limits then attach to the permit itself. It is granted for a maximum of six months from the date of issuance, so a phased job needs planning around that expiry. And it has to be posted on site, in a protected area and in a conspicuous place.
What It Costs
The number that decides a budget here is the replacement obligation, and the code sets out how it is calculated. The permit fee sits elsewhere. It is set by resolution of the City Commission and held on file in the City Clerk's office rather than in the code. We confirm the current amount with the department before quoting, rather than publish a figure that may have moved.
Replacement is measured by the cross-section of the trunk. For a tree less than twenty feet in height, the equivalent replacement is the equal square area of the trunk of the tree removed. For a tree more than twenty feet, it is twice that square area. Both are measured at four and one half feet above the ground. Height is therefore a budget input on its own, because crossing twenty feet doubles the obligation for the same trunk.
The stock is specified too. Replacement is the same species where possible, or another native species as defined in the Association of Florida Native Nurseries Plant and Service Locator. Each replacement tree must be a minimum of two inches in cumulative trunk diameter at breast height. And the equivalent replacement, whether it is one tree or several, is guaranteed for one year. That guarantee is a carrying cost, and it belongs in any quote that involves mitigation.
Specimen trees are handled inch for inch. A specimen tree approved for removal is replaced with a quantity of trees planted on site equal to its cumulative caliper dimension. Where the site cannot hold them, planting goes on city property, or an equivalent value per caliper inch goes into the city tree trust fund. Where the tree removed was so large that one equivalent replacement is impossible, the balance carries forward. The largest tree reasonably available is planted on the site, and the remainder on the site or on public property, at the city's option and direction.
What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit
A tree removal penalty fee of $500.00, plus the appraised value of the tree, is charged for each tree removed without a permit. The code states that this fee is in addition to any other remedy available to the city. It stands alongside the replacement obligation rather than in place of it, and the charge is calculated per tree rather than per job.
There is a separate criminal exposure. A person who removes a tree without a permit is, upon conviction, subject to a fine not to exceed $500.00 plus the appraised value of the tree. The alternative the code states is ninety days in jail. Each tree removed without a permit constitutes a separate offense, so the count runs with the number of trees. Fines imposed under the subsection are deposited in the city's tree preservation fund.
Where insufficient trunk of the removed tree exists for the equivalent replacement to be determined from it, the calculation still proceeds. The code estimates the replacement from trees of the same species existing in the vicinity, considering aerial photographs and other available data relative to the area. So a removal carried out before a permit is filed remains measurable afterwards.
What to Check With Your Contractor
The prohibition names agents and representatives alongside owners, and it reaches conduct directly or indirectly, so responsibility sits with the property as well as with the crew. Two checks follow from that. That the permit is in hand and posted on site, in a protected area and in a conspicuous place, before work starts. And that the one year guarantee on replacement stock is written into the contract rather than assumed to be included.
What to Do Next
Four things are worth settling before tree work is scheduled in Parkland. Which trees in scope have attained a caliper dimension of two inches. Which of them stand more than twenty feet, because that doubles the replacement obligation for the same trunk. Whether any is a specimen tree, which is replaced inch for inch on cumulative caliper. And what the City Commission resolution currently sets the permit fee at.
We settle those before quoting. We inspect the trees and record species, caliper and height. We prepare the arborist report where the application calls for one, file the permit, and handle replacement planting and the one year guarantee where mitigation applies. 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 Parkland. See landscaping services in Parkland.
The information presented on this page was accurate as of 23 August 2026.
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