Wylie, TX Landscaping Rules: Tree Trimming (2026)

Sec. 78-256(b) bars a property owner from letting a tree or other plant growing on the property or in the adjacent parkway obstruct or interfere with drivers' view, put pedestrians on the sidewalk at risk of serious injury, or create a traffic hazard. Subsection (b)(3)a translates that standard into exact numbers: property owners must maintain a clear space of eight feet above the surface of a sidewalk and 15 feet above the curb line of an adjacent street, and, more broadly, no tree, shrub or other landscaping may interfere with the free passage of vehicles on the street or pedestrians on the sidewalk, or obscure a traffic-control device, street sign or visibility triangle.

Subsection (b)(3)b sets the compliance process: if an obstruction persists, the public services director must notify the property owner in writing to prune or remove the tree, shrub or plant within 30 calendar days; if the owner does not comply, the city may issue a citation for each day the violation continues and, depending on severity, may perform the trimming or removal itself without incurring liability. The same article's Sec. 78-257(c) separately bans 'topping', defined in Sec. 78-251 as cutting limbs back to stubs larger than three inches in diameter within a tree's crown so as to remove the normal canopy, for any street or park tree on public property, though severely storm-damaged trees may be exempted from that ban at the director's discretion.