Spokane County, WA Landscaping Rules: Tree Trimming (2026)

150 governs how cable franchisees occupy county streets, and subsection (f) is the operative tree-trimming rule: on reasonable advance notice to impacted owners, a franchisee may trim trees upon and overhanging streets, alleys, sidewalks and public ways to keep tree branches from contacting its wires and cables. The county retains the right to take over that trimming work itself, or to supervise and direct it, but even then the cost is billed to the franchisee, not absorbed by the county or the property owner. This sits inside a broader street-occupancy chapter that also requires franchisees to restore any street, sidewalk or paved area they disturb to as good a condition as it was before the work, to relocate poles and lines at their own expense when the county changes a street grade, and to place facilities underground wherever technology reasonably allows in areas where other utilities already run underground.

The rule exists to protect the physical safety of the cable plant, not as a general public shade-tree ordinance: it does not give county residents or road crews an independent right to compel a neighbor to trim overhanging branches, and it does not address vegetation blocking sight lines at intersections, which is handled separately under the county's clear-view-triangle fence standards. A property owner objecting to a franchisee's trimming plan has no veto once the required notice has been given; the remedy is to raise timing or method concerns with the franchisee or, failing that, to bring the dispute to the county engineer/public works director who administers franchise street-occupancy issues countywide.