Pismo Beach, CA Landscaping Rules: Tree Trimming (2026)

Chapter 12.12 governs trees in streets, parkways and other public places, and the Director of Public Works is the permitting official. Section 12.12.010 defines maintenance to include cutting, trimming, pruning, spraying, fertilizing, irrigating and bracing, and defines a parkway as all land between the traveled roadway, as the director determines it, and the property boundaries abutting public streets. Under § 12.12.030(C), the permit application states the number and kind of trees to be trimmed, sprayed, cut, defaced, destroyed, burned or removed, the treatment to be administered, and the kind and condition of the nearest trees on the adjoining property.

The director issues the permit on finding that the action or treatment is necessary or appropriate and that the method is acceptable, and can deny it when a tree has value as an historical object. Section 12.12.020 lets the director or an authorized representative inspect any tree on a street, park, playground, boulevard, alley or public place for a condition that is a hazard or an impediment to the progress or vision of anyone traveling there, and authorizes the director to trim or remove any tree found to be a hazard.

Work done under a permit must follow § 12.12.040, which requires limb cuts above two inches in diameter to be waterproofed and, when the director requires it, felled trees to have the root stump grubbed out and the hole filled to ground level. Section 12.12.060 separately bars damaging, cutting, carving or removing any tree in a parkway or public area, and § 12.12.070 requires builders to guard public trees near construction. Under § 12.12.090, the chapter does not relieve owners or occupants of private property of the duty to keep the private property, sidewalk or parkway in front of it safe and sanitary so it is not hazardous to public travel. Chapter 12.12 prints no minimum clearance height over sidewalks or streets.