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

Chapter 12.40 governs 'roadside trees,' defined in Section 12.40.010 as trees standing in the city's 'roadside tree area,' meaning the dedicated roadway, street, or highway right-of-way from easement line to easement line, including the sidewalks and the center and side planting plots within it. That is a public right-of-way rule, not a private-yard ordinance: it reaches parkway and median trees the city has authority over because they sit in dedicated street rights-of-way, not trees planted entirely on private residential lots. Under Section 12.40.020, only a city officer or the city's own contractual agent can plant, cut down, pull up, burn, destroy, remove, trim, skin, deface, or strip the bark of a roadside tree, or prune it in a way that endangers its life or uniform growth, without first obtaining a permit from the director of public works or an authorized agent.

Section 12.40.030 gives that director broad authority to write conditions into the permit to protect the tree's uniform growth and development, including time limits on the work and a cash deposit to guarantee the work is finished as approved, mirroring the deposit-and-condition structure used for the city's other street-related permits. Because the chapter sits within Title 12's street regulations, a resident who wants to remove or heavily trim a tree growing in the parkway strip in front of a house, rather than a tree entirely inside the property line, is the party this permit requirement targets, and the request goes to public works rather than to a building or planning counter.