Tree Removal Permits in Royal Palm Beach

In Royal Palm Beach the permit is written to vegetation, not to trees alone. Section 15-71 requires a vegetation removal permit from the community development department before vegetation is removed from any lot or portion of a lot in the village, and the section names the removal of trees, shrubs or hedges. 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 15-71(a) is written to the parties rather than to the property types. No person, corporation, association, public agency, or agent or employee of one may remove vegetation from any lot within the village without first obtaining the permit. A board, a management company and the crew on site each sit inside that sentence. The two Palm Beach County articles we read do not create a general permit to remove an ordinary tree, so on a removal in Royal Palm Beach the village rule is the one that governs. A separate county obligation does reach inside city limits: the countywide invasive non-native vegetation ordinance applies in incorporated areas except where a municipal ordinance conflicts, and our Palm Beach County guide sets out what it requires.

The chapter then splits applicants into two tracks. A single-family detached or duplex residence obtains a no-fee vegetation removal permit before removing any trees, shrubs or hedges, so the parcel keeps the minimum landscaping required under Sections 15-3 or 15-130 and specimen trees stay protected. All other developments, and applicants seeking to remove vegetation on undeveloped land, obtain the permit and pay the associated permit fee established by resolution of the village council. Section 15-71(c) adds that the village permit leaves every other agency's permit still to be obtained.

What Needs a Permit

Section 15-76 carries the exemptions, and the hazardous route sets a condition to meet before the saw starts. It reaches a protected or specimen tree destroyed or so severely damaged by natural causes that it is a peril to life or property through close proximity to vertical construction. Documentation such as photographs shall be taken prior to the removal, demonstrating the hazardous situation, the species of tree being removed and the trunk size DBH in inches. Replacement or mitigation may still be required.

Specimen status is set species by species at Section 15-78. Fiddlewood, Soapberry and Torchwood are specimen trees at two inches DBH. Spicewood reaches it at four inches, Blolly, Dahoon Holly and Myrtle Oak at five, Black Ironwood, Chapman Oak, Geiger Tree and Satinleaf at six, Lancewood, Pigeon Plum, Sand Pine and Silver Buttonwood at seven, False Mastic at eight, Paradise Tree and Sweet Bay at nine. Bald Cypress, Gumbo Limbo, Laurel Oak, Live Oak, Red Maple and Seagrape sit at ten inches, among others in that row. Royal Palm is fourteen inches and Royal Poinciana twenty.

Preservation is then required on a sliding schedule, set against the number of specimen trees standing on the site. Trees installed under a village-approved streetscape program become protected vegetation as well, and Section 15-72 counts a village-approved streetscape program among the criteria an application is reviewed against. Species identification decides all of this, so it comes before a quote rather than after one.

Section 15-73 sets seven criteria for removing a specimen tree, each requiring that there be no reasonable alternative. A specimen may come out where it stands in the net buildable area, an existing or proposed right-of-way, or an easement or stormwater tract, and there only the minimum area reasonably necessary counts. Others cover interference with utility installation or maintenance, and property that already meets the minimum specimen trees per acre under Section 15-78(b). Development is a ground as well, but not where the applicant failed to design and locate the proposed improvements so as to minimize the removal of trees.

Two of the criteria turn on whether pruning could have saved the tree. Where a specimen is in danger of falling, or creates a safety or health hazard or a nuisance, removal also requires that there be no reasonable method to rehabilitate or restore the health of the tree through proper pruning or other remediation techniques. The planning and zoning department may require verification of the claim from a certified engineer or certified arborist in the State of Florida. What that phrase means as a credential is worth settling with the department first.

What It Costs

The number that decides a budget here is the replacement planting rather than the filing fee. Section 15-79 requires trees that are removed to be replaced with the same species or a similar species, as approved by the planning and zoning department, the planning and zoning commission or the village council as applicable. Select fee simple owned property, including single-family residences, villa dwellings, townhouse dwellings and duplexes, is exempt from the replacement requirements of that section, so the obligation lands on the other property types.

The permit fee itself sits outside the chapter. Single-family detached and duplex residences pay nothing for the permit. All other developments, and applicants removing vegetation on undeveloped land, pay a fee established by resolution of the village council. An editor's note records that Ordinance No. 945, adopted 20 December 2018, repealed the former Section 15-73, which pertained to the permit fee. We confirm the current amount with the community development department before quoting.

What Happens If It Is Done Without a Permit

Section 15-4 counts the removal of each tree in violation of the chapter as a separate violation. A violator who removes vegetation without a removal permit is subject to an irreparable irreversible fine under Chapter 162, Florida Statutes, and is further ordered to replace the vegetation. That is the tier under Chapter 162 carrying the higher statutory fine, and it may be imposed without a period to correct the violation first. Hatracking and tree abuse are named alongside unpermitted removal, and required trees are replaced under the schedule at Section 15-79.

Section 15-73 then makes the protection itself enforceable. Failure to provide vegetation protection as stated in that section constitutes tree abuse and is a violation of it. Abused trees, and trees removed within a preservation area, are replaced in accordance with Section 15-79, with the planting guaranteed for one year. In Royal Palm Beach a crew does not have to touch a tree to commit tree abuse. Leaving the barricade off is the violation.

What to Check With Your Contractor

Barricade distances are species dependent, and six feet is a floor rather than the standard. Barriers go at six feet or more from all species of mangroves. For protected hardwoods it is six feet or more, or outside two-thirds of the radius of the dripline, whichever is greater. For protected conifers it is six feet or greater, or the radius of the dripline, whichever is greater. Special conditions attached to a permit may set something else. On a mature tree the dripline calculation is what governs.

Groups of trees are handled by marking instead of barriers, with stakes no more than 50 feet apart strung with rope, tape or ribbon, and no marking material attached to a protected tree. Protection stays in place until inspection staff authorize its removal or a certificate of occupancy issues. A copy of the approved vegetation removal permit shall be clearly posted on the job site during all phases of clearing and construction activities.

Filing on an owner's behalf takes paperwork prepared in advance. The application form shall be accurately completed, signed and notarized by the property owner or the owner's agent. Where an agent submits it, the application shall include a notarized agency agreement showing that the owner has delegated full authority to apply for the permit and to accept the terms of any special conditions the community development department may impose. Approval can be conditioned, including limiting removal to the minimum necessary, restricting it to delineated parts of the site, specifying methods such as root pruning for relocation, and requiring surety.

What to Do Next

Four things are worth settling before tree work is scheduled in Royal Palm Beach. Whether the scope reaches shrubs or hedges as well as trees. Whether any tree in scope meets the specimen threshold for its species, which turns on identifying the species first. Whether the notarized agency agreement is signed and carries authority to accept special conditions. And what the current permit fee is, since it comes from a resolution rather than from the chapter.

We settle those before quoting. We identify and measure the vegetation, then prepare the generalized vegetation survey and the written assessment of the plant communities the application calls for. Nonresidential and multifamily work needs an aerial or field survey with photographs, and the application goes in three copies. We file the permit, install protection to the standard Section 15-73 sets, and handle replacement planting where it applies. TWQ Landscaping handles tree permitting for the properties we maintain across Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade: community associations and condominiums, cooperative and master associations, commercial and industrial sites, medical and senior living campuses, schools, religious campuses, hotels, multifamily rental, self-storage, marinas, mobile home and RV parks, municipal grounds and mixed-use. Call (954) 583-4752 or request a proposal.

TWQ Landscaping maintains commercial and community association property in Royal Palm Beach. See landscaping services in Royal Palm Beach.

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

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