Parker, CO Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Section 13.08.090(l), Tree and shrub conservation and replacement, applies to all property in the Town of Parker except where the ordinance exempts it. The general conservation standard is blunt: no person may remove, damage or destroy any Significant Tree or Significant Vegetation unless the section otherwise allows it, and existing trees on a development site or in a right-of-way must be saved to the maximum extent practicable unless no reasonable site configuration lets the applicant build without removing them, with removal then limited to the fewest trees necessary.

Before any qualifying tree comes down, the Planning Director must approve a tree conservation plan that minimizes the environmental and visual impact of the removal; that plan is reviewed alongside the Site Plan process under Section 13.03.040(p). The rule does not reach every lot: the ordinance exempts activities on single-family detached dwelling and duplex dwelling lots, ordinary landscape maintenance and pruning, commercial arboriculture and nursery operations, removal of storm-damaged trees, Wildland Urban Interface fire-mitigation thinning, removal of dead, diseased or hazardous trees verified by an arborist, and any tree or shrub listed as a noxious weed under the Colorado Noxious Weed Act.

Where trees are preserved or relocated, a developer can earn landscaping credit toward the site's required new plantings, two inches of credit per inch of diameter conserved on new development, three inches on redevelopment, and a half-inch for each inch relocated, though that credit cannot be used to satisfy the separate Streetscape Landscaping requirement in Section 13.08.090(e).