East Brunswick, NJ Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

The permit rule is § 192-38(I) of the Township Code. Applications go to the Department of Planning and Engineering and name the applicant and property owner and show the trees on a plan: a tree location sketch for a single-family residence, or a survey by a licensed Land Surveyor for other properties. The plan numbers each tree to be removed with its caliper, numbers the trees to remain and shows a limit of disturbance line where a four foot high standard wood snow fence will be erected. Trees over twenty inches in caliper and any specimen tree must be shown. For clearing of more than two acres a representative five percent of the wooded area is inventoried, and below two acres every tree to be removed is inventoried.

Exemptions cover property under a certified woodland management plan, public entities and local utilities maintaining property or rights-of-way, and removal of individual limbs that leaves the tree viable. Where a building is involved, no building permit issues until the tree removal permit is granted, and a homeowners association's ruling body must approve first where one exists.

Replacement is required beyond the ten-tree allowance for existing residential property. A new residential subdivision can clear up to fifty percent of trees for building envelopes, driveways and yard space without replacement, but trees removed in roadways, drainage facilities, parking areas or proposed open space are replaced. Commercial and industrial developments replace every tree removed. Replacement value is $250 per tree over 6 inches up to 12 inches, $500 over 12 up to 18, $750 over 18 up to 24, and $1,000 over 24 inches, with shortfalls paid into the Township Tree Escrow Fund. A permit lasts one year. Trees in the public right-of-way and parks are governed by Chapter 181, where § 181-3 allows removal only upon an Act of God or the consensus of Division of Parks personnel.