Fresno, CA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

FMC § 13-305, Tree Preservation, lets property owners apply for a permit to remove or maintain a street tree, but only if every condition in subsection (d) is met: the work happens under a certified arborist's direction, is completed by a city-licensed contractor following International Society of Arboriculture standards, and is paid for entirely by the applicant without tapping the Council's Street Tree Program funding. The applicant pays a refundable planting permit fee set in the Master Fee Schedule, which the city refunds once a city arborist verifies the replacement tree was planted, and which is forfeited into the Tree Trust Fund if the replacement is never planted.

Before any removal, the city notifies nearby homeowners with door hangers, covering anyone within two hundred feet of the proposed removal's front or side property line; those neighbors get fourteen days to protest to the Director. Removed trees must be replaced with a Director-approved species from the city's Approved Tree List, at a minimum 1:1 ratio, or the applicant can instead pay an in-lieu fee before the permit is issued. The Director decides applications within thirty days, must state reasons for any denial, mails the decision to the applicant and all owners of record, and posts a sign at the site for at least ten days.

Trees on the Special Tree List under § 13-306, or any tree the city has otherwise determined to be protected, cannot be removed under this permit process at all, a decision under § 13-306 goes to the Public Works Director directly and can be appealed to the City Council.