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

Jackson County's Unified Development Code (Appendix A) applies tree protection to every activity requiring a land-disturbance permit or development permit, except activities the code exempts (§ 1212). Before grading or building, an applicant must designate tree protection areas on the grading plan, landscaping plan or final plat: stream and other riparian buffers required by state law or the UDC, required zoning buffers, and any existing trees a developer or subdivider proposes or is required to retain outside those buffers (§ 1213). Removing a tree inside a designated tree protection area is unlawful unless the code specifically authorizes it.

Once an area is delineated on a recorded plat or approved land development plan, every tree within it must be preserved by the subdivider and any later lot owner, and the area must stay in a natural, undisturbed condition; vehicle or equipment traffic, material storage, temporary or permanent structures, wounding of trunks or limbs over four inches in diameter, topping, fires, clearing, grubbing, grading, trenching, tilling, soil compaction and fill over two inches deep are all specifically prohibited inside it (§ 1216). Protection areas must be fenced with a minimum four-foot barrier before land disturbance begins, inspected by the Public Development Department, and posted with bilingual Tree Protection Area signs at least every 200 feet (§§ 1214, 1215).

Any tree damaged during construction must be treated to ANSI A300 standards, and a tree that dies or is removed in violation of these requirements must be replaced by the next planting season with a tree of the same or similar species and mature canopy size (§§ 1217, 1218).