Tree Removal Permits in Pinecrest
In Pinecrest the tree permit reaches past the property line. Division 6.2 requires a tree removal permit for the removal or relocation of any tree in the village located on private property or on the public right-of-way fronting private property, unless specifically exempted. The activities the ordinance does exempt carry a condition of their own: they may only be undertaken following an inspection by the administrative official. 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?
Division 6.2 is written about the tree and where it stands rather than about who owns the site. The permit covers any tree in the village on private property, so a commercial parcel, an association common area, a condominium site, a hotel or an institutional campus is read against the same rule. The same sentence extends the permit to the public right-of-way fronting private property, which brings the swale strip between the sidewalk and the street inside the village permit.
One question sits with the county rather than the village. Miami-Dade County Section 24-49(4)(a) sets the position on a yard tree at an existing single-family residence, on the conditions our Miami-Dade County guide sets out. A municipality is entitled to be stricter than the county, and Pinecrest writes its own tree regulations, so a single-family address is worth settling with the village before anything comes down.
What Needs a Permit
The permit covers relocation as well as removal, so moving a tree within the site is treated the same way as taking it off the site. Separately, Division 6.2 provides that no person shall commit tree abuse, hatrack or effectively destroy any tree located on his or her property in the village, unless otherwise permitted by the terms of the tree regulations. That reaches cutting as well as removal, because a cut that effectively destroys a tree falls inside the same prohibition.
The ordinance then adds a counting rule that matters on a property with a long maintenance history. Each separate action shall constitute a violation of this section regardless of whether the tree was previously abused, hatracked or effectively destroyed. A tree that a previous contractor already cut back hard remains inside the section, and a further round of the same work is counted on its own terms rather than absorbed into the first.
The ordinance also lists activities that are exempt from tree removal permits, and it attaches one condition to them. Those activities may only be undertaken following an inspection by the administrative official. The exemption runs to the permit, and the inspection still stands ahead of the work, so an exempt job begins with a village visit rather than with a crew. Which list an intended removal falls on is worth settling before a date is booked.
What It Costs
The number that decides a budget in Pinecrest is replacement caliper rather than the permit fee. Removal of a specimen tree with a diameter at breast height of 18 inches or more requires replacement at the rate of one and one-half or two times the caliper removed. That is an inches-of-trunk obligation rather than a count of trees, and it is fixed by the size of what comes down.
The ordinance works both rates as examples. At the two times rate, a tree with a caliper of 18 inches is replaced with a tree or trees having a combined, cumulative caliper of 36 inches. Each is a minimum of four inches diameter at breast height and 12 feet in height. At the one and one-half rate the cumulative caliper is 27 inches, and the stock is larger: a minimum of eight inches diameter at breast height and 25 feet in height.
As a worked example rather than a schedule rate, a single 24 inch specimen at the two times rate produces 48 inches of cumulative replacement caliper, and three of them produce 144 inches. Stock size drives that cost alongside the total. All category 1 replacement shade trees are a minimum of 26 to 35 feet in height, with a minimum caliper of 10 to 12 inches at the time of planting. At maturity they should have a canopy coverage of 1,500 square feet.
Where on-site replacement is not possible, off-site replacement is required, and a contribution to the village tree trust fund is available only as a last resort, for the full value of the replacement trees. That last route is priced at the full value of the trees, so the caliper obligation still sets the number. The village also charges fees on the permit itself, and there may be a waiver for certain species. We ask about it rather than assume it, because what we have on that waiver is not solid enough to put in front of a board as a saving. We confirm the current amounts and whether any waiver applies with Pinecrest before quoting.
What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit
Pinecrest publishes its abuse penalties as flat per-tree amounts. Any person that commits tree abuse, hatracking, or effectively destroys any tree in the village is subject to $250.00 per tree on a first violation and $500.00 per tree on a second and subsequent violations. Per tree is the part that scales on a large site. As a worked example, a row of twelve trees hatracked in one afternoon reaches $3,000.00 at the first violation rate.
The money is not the whole of the exposure. Where a person engages in tree cutting that effectively destroys a tree, that person is required to obtain an after-the-fact tree removal permit. Where an after-the-fact permit follows a violation, the village may require both fees and replacement of a right-of-way tree. And because each separate action is its own violation, the count runs by action and by tree rather than by visit.
What to Check With Your Contractor
Put three things to a contractor in writing before work starts. Whether the permit is in hand, or the inspection by the administrative official has taken place where the activity is an exempt one. Whether the specification rules out hatracking, since the ordinance names hatracking alongside abuse and effective destruction and prices it per tree. And who is carrying the replacement obligation under the contract, because the caliper owed is fixed by the size of what comes down.
The scope of work is worth reading against the location rule as well. A schedule that lists the trees fronting the property is a schedule that includes right-of-way trees, and those sit inside the village permit. A contractor pricing the frontage as ordinary maintenance is pricing work the permit reaches, and the penalty for getting that wrong is counted per tree.
What to Do Next
Before any tree work is scheduled in Pinecrest, three things are worth settling. Whether any tree in scope is a specimen at 18 inches diameter at breast height or more, because that is where the replacement rate attaches. What the cumulative caliper comes to at the rate the village applies, and where the replacement stock will go. And what the application needs, since Pinecrest asks for a vegetation survey at the same scale as the landscape plan, including an aerial photo which outlines the subject site without obscuring it.
We settle all three before quoting. We inspect the trees, document species, size and condition, prepare the arborist report where the application calls for one, produce the survey and aerial photo the village asks for, file the permit, and handle the replacement planting. 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.
The information presented on this page was accurate as of 27 August 2026.
Related Services
Request a Proposal
Thank you for your message
We will get back to you shortly
Please fill in all required fields
Your message could not be sent
Please call or email us directly (954) 583-4752 / hello@twqlandscaping.com