Dearborn Heights, MI Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Sec. 33-30 makes it unlawful to remove or cause the removal of a tree anywhere in Dearborn Heights, on privately owned land or non-city publicly owned property, without a tree permit from the public works department, and the same permit is required before any construction, material deposit, land clearing, grubbing, or grading within the drip line of a protected tree. Applicants file with the public works department, which reviews within fifteen working days when no site plan is required, or can delegate review to the building and engineering department with the mayor's approval; where a site plan is required, the planning commission's approval must come first and can include a required tree-replacement plan.

The department may also demand a tree survey or superimposed tree survey, prepared by a registered land surveyor and verified by a registered arborist or forester, showing every tree's location, species, size, and condition. To issue a removal permit, the department must find no risk to others' property rights in the tree, that the applicant has sufficient interest in the tree, that removal can be done safely, that a licensed and insured tree remover will do the work unless the property owner shows one is unnecessary, and that the required permit fee, set by city council resolution, has been paid.

Removal generally requires one-to-one replacement or relocation, or payment into the city tree fund in lieu of that, with replacement trees at least three-inch caliper for deciduous species or ten feet tall for evergreens; removing a landmark tree instead requires replacement equal to twenty-five percent of its DBH. Any tree under six inches DBH is completely exempt from the whole permit process, and dead or diseased trees need a permit but no fee and no replacement duty once a licensed remover certifies the condition in writing.