Taylorsville, UT Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Section 14.44.030 of the Taylorsville City Code, in the shade trees chapter, gives the department authority to condemn and remove, or to order the abutting property owner to remove, any tree, tree stump, shrub or vine located on any city roads, avenues or ways when the tree, stump, shrub or vine is dead, diseased or for any other reason undesirable, but only after giving proper notice to the abutting property owner. A separate, notice-free power lets the department trim or prune any road tree, or remove any tree that is in violation of any city ordinance, without serving notice on the abutting owner at all.

This authority sits alongside section 14.44.010, which places the burden of caring for and watering a right-of-way tree on the abutting owner who receives its benefit and warns that failing to do so may constitute a nuisance, and section 14.44.020, which lets the highway division set the planting line where trees are to be centered within a city right of way. Because the chapter grants the removal power to the department rather than to private property owners on their own initiative, a resident cannot cut down a city right-of-way tree without department action; the practical route for a resident who believes a tree is hazardous or diseased is to report it to the department for condemnation under this section rather than removing it themselves.