Vineland, NJ Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

Section 425-85 applies to any application for subdivision, site plan, conditional use or use variance approval on a site larger than one acre that contains more than one acre of forest, defined as an area where at least 20% of the trees over a quarter acre have a diameter breast height (DBH) of six inches or more, or where mature tree groves exist regardless of DBH. Subsection B(4) is the operative bar: no development may cut or remove, or cause to be cut or removed, any tree with a DBH of six inches or greater unless the removal is accomplished under a Planning Board-approved site plan or subdivision, and no tree on land already covered by a tree replacement plan may be removed except under that approved plan.

Depending on the zoning district, mitigation and replacement are triggered once a project removes more than 65% of forest acreage in denser residential, planned and industrial-type zones, or more than 30% of forest acreage everywhere else. An application for major subdivision or site plan approval must include a forest retention, tree-save and replacement plan certified by a New Jersey-licensed forester, landscape architect or tree expert, inventorying existing trees, showing removal locations and calculating replacement under Table A, a percentage-based formula for trees six to under 16 inches DBH, or Table B, a fixed number of replacement trees per removed tree of 16 inches DBH or larger.