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

C(5)a, Plan Required, sets Sedona's baseline: no existing trees on any lot or parcel can be removed, and no one may strip, excavate, grade, or otherwise remove topsoil from a site, without a site development plan, a tree removal plan, a grading plan, or a landscape plan on file. The City can require the applicant to pay for a qualified arborist's review of the plan. C(5)b limits which trees can actually come down to four categories: a tree standing where a structure or improvement will be placed if leaving it would unreasonably restrict the economically beneficial use of the lot; a tree that is dead, diseased, injured, in danger of damaging structures, or creates unsafe vision clearance or utility conflicts; a tree on an adopted invasive, exotic, noxious, or discouraged species list for the Sedona area; or a tree that is a potential fire hazard.

C(5)c, with a narrow exemption for trees within five feet of a structure's walls if six or more inches of gravel is spread over the dripline. C(5)d's replacement mandate: the owner must plant a new or transplanted tree of the same quantity, meeting the minimum size standards, unless the Director waives it because remaining trees already satisfy the site's planting requirements. C(5)e.