Chesapeake, VA Landscaping Rules: Tree Trimming (2026)
Key Facts
- Permit required
- Before cutting, trimming or spraying street trees
- Issuing office
- Director of Development and Permits or designee
- Standard
- Only when fully justified in the public interest
- Sketch requirement
- Must show any tree to be removed (Sec. 66-126)
- Default penalty
- Class 1 misdemeanor: up to $2,500, 12 months jail
Summary
Chesapeake requires a permit before anyone cuts, trims or sprays a tree or shrub growing in a public street, defined broadly to include rights-of-way, avenues and easements. The director of development and permits issues the permit only when the work is justified in the public interest, and cutting street trees without one is unlawful under the city's right-of-way permit article.
Sec. 66-106. - Cutting or trimming trees. No tree or shrub on any street shall be cut or trimmed, unless a permit therefor shall have been obtained from the director of development and permits or designee. Such cutting, trimming or spraying shall be permitted only when fully justified in the public interest and then only in a manner prescribed in the permit issued therefor. ... Sec. 66-121. - Required. Except as otherwise provided in this article, it shall be unlawful for any person to perform any work in connection with the erection, construction, removal, relocation or maintenance of any surface, overhead or underground installation or to cut or trim trees or to place signs if such work, cutting, trimming, spraying or placing it on, under or over affects a street, until such person shall have obtained a permit therefor in accordance with this article.
Full Breakdown
The rule sits in Chapter 66's street-use article, which treats the public street as including rights-of-way, avenues, boulevards and easements under the Sec. " Sec. 66-121 folds tree cutting and trimming into the same permit requirement that covers digging up pavement, running overhead lines or placing signs in the right-of-way: no work may begin until the director of development and permits, or a designee, issues a permit. Applications go through Sec. 66-122 on forms supplied by the director and, under Sec. " Sec. 66-124 directs the director to confirm the proposed work complies with prevailing planning practices and construction standards before a permit issues.
Chesapeake reserves the permit for work "fully justified in the public interest," so routine private landscaping trims of a homeowner's own yard trees are outside the article; it targets cutting, trimming or spraying that reaches trees standing in the street right-of-way itself, including boundary or median plantings. Mailboxes and newspaper boxes are separately exempted from the permit under Sec. 66-104, but tree work gets no comparable carve-out. The article traces to an ordinance of October 22, 1963, later renumbered by Ord. No. 09-O-100 on August 11, 2009, which retitled the reviewing office as the director of development and permits.
Violations & Fines
Cutting or trimming a street tree without the required permit is unlawful under Sec. 66-121, and Chapter 66 sets no specific penalty for that violation. Under Sec. 1-10, an unlawful act in the city code with no stated penalty is a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 12 months in jail, a fine of up to $2,500, or both. The director of development and permits may also decline to approve work that does not comply with planning and construction standards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a permit to trim a tree in front of my Chesapeake house?
Who issues the tree-trimming permit and what do I submit?
What happens if I trim a street tree without a permit?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Chesapeake
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