Cleveland County, NC Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Section 12-283 of the Unified Development Ordinance, in Article XIV covering signs, does not create a general tree-removal permit system for the unincorporated county. Instead it bans a narrower act: damaging, trimming, destroying or removing trees, shrubs or other vegetation for the purpose of increasing or enhancing the visibility of a sign. The ban applies in three settings. First, within the right-of-way of any public street or road, cutting for sign visibility is unlawful unless NCDOT or the agency with jurisdiction over the street gives express written authorization.

Second, on property the person doing the cutting does not own or control, the same work is unlawful unless the property owner gives express written authorization. Third, cutting is unlawful in any area where trees or shrubs are required to remain under a permit issued elsewhere in chapter 12, such as a screening buffer approved under Article XV or a landscape condition attached to a zoning or conditional use permit. Outside those three settings, and outside a purpose tied to sign visibility, the code does not require a county permit before removing trees or shrubs from private land.

A landowner clearing vegetation for farming, construction, firewood or any reason other than opening up a sign is not touched by section 12-283. The provision exists because Article XIV also regulates outdoor advertising along county roads and interstates under section 12-282, and the county did not want sign owners solving a visibility problem by cutting vegetation on road rights-of-way or a neighbor's land instead of applying for a bigger or taller sign permit.