Glendale, AZ Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

City Code Chapter 19, Article IV (Urban Forestry), Section 19-97 (Planting, removing or cutting trees on public property) bars any person from planting, removing, cutting above the ground, or disturbing a tree within any city right-of-way, park or other public place without first obtaining a permit from the Administrator, defined under Section 19-94 as the deputy city manager for public works. A permit holder must abide by the standards set in the urban forestry article. Those standards flow from the urban forestry plan the interdepartmental urban forestry committee develops and the City Council adopts by resolution under Section 19-95, which sets International Society of Arboriculture specifications for street and park trees, the types of trees allowed in rights-of-way and parks, care and removal requirements, and location and spacing guidelines.

Section 19-98 separately bars nailing, stapling, gluing or otherwise affixing any sign, letter, reflector or number to a street or park tree, protecting the same public trees this permit requirement covers. Section 19-93 confirms the article's reach: it authorizes maintenance of trees in the City's rights-of-way, parks and public places, plus private-property trees that pose a hazard, but does not require a permit for ordinary maintenance of trees on private land that create no public hazard.