Livonia, MI Invasive Plant Rules: Tree-of-Heaven Removal (2026)

Article X of the Livonia Zoning Ordinance sets landscaping standards for every site subject to site plan review, covering frontage plantings, parking lot screening, loading area buffers and greenbelts between districts. Section 10.04, "Standards for Plant Materials," fixes minimum plant sizes and then lists species the City will not credit toward those requirements. Subsection (3), "Prohibited Species," states the rule directly: the listed species "are prohibited from being planted as required landscaping" because of their "undesirability." Ailanthus altissima, tree of heaven, sits on that list by its Latin name alongside boxelder maple, catalpa, poplars and willows; ash trees are barred separately "due to Emerald Ash Borer," and maples are flagged as discouraged "due to overuse in landscape." The table applies wherever the Ordinance requires landscaping: commercial site plans, multi-family developments, subdivisions and site condominiums subject to Section 10.03's greenbelt, frontage and parking lot rules.

A developer cannot count a planted tree of heaven toward the trees or shrubs a landscape plan mandates, and the subsection gives the Planning Director or City Council discretion to add more species, since it says they "may prohibit other species that are not listed below." The restriction is narrower than a citywide ban on the tree itself: it governs what satisfies a required landscape plan, not incidental growth on a lot carrying no landscaping obligation. Section 10.05(2) folds the same species list into ongoing maintenance duty, since an approved landscape plan is treated as a permanent record the owner must keep compliant, and unapproved substitutions create a nonconformity under the Ordinance.