Fayette County, GA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Article VI of chapter 104 applies to any activity requiring a preliminary plat, an erosion, sedimentation and pollution control plan, or a site plan, with a short list of carve-outs: dead, diseased, or infested trees certified by the state forestry commission or an arborist, active orchards and tree nurseries, agricultural operations, commercial forestry and timber harvesting, and certain exempted public roads and utilities under section 104-266. Even a residential subdivision without common infrastructure that skips the site-density-unit math still has to file a tree protection plan under section 104-152(b).

Section 104-153(4) spells out what that protection looks like on the ground: a tree protection area, sized to either the tree's dripline or its critical root zone, whichever is larger, has to be fenced off with orange tree-protection fencing, chainlink, stakes, or engineering tape and marked with at least two Tree Protection Area signs before construction equipment moves in. The environmental management department inspects that fencing during the initial erosion-and-sediment-control inspection, and land disturbance during street construction is limited to the areas actually needed for right-of-way, drainage easements, erosion control, and utilities so everything else stays undisturbed.

Where a utility line has to cross a critical root zone, it must be tunneled at a depth of 24 inches rather than trenched. The tree protection plan itself has to be prepared by a licensed landscape architect, forester, certified arborist, or similarly licensed professional and reviewed by the environmental management department within 14 calendar days of submittal.