Alexandria, VA Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

Sec. 6-2-37 authorizes the city manager to designate as an historic tree any tree she deems of notable historic interest because of its age, size, species, condition or historic association, on either public or private land. Once so designated, removal or destruction is unlawful unless it falls under the hazard/emergency exemption of Sec. 6-2-36 or city council approves removal after a public hearing. If the tree stands on private property, the manager cannot designate it until the owners of record have received 21 days' written notice by mail and an opportunity to comment; public-property trees carry no such notice requirement.

The manager must issue, and may later amend, written regulations administering the historic-tree program, transmitted to city council for review; council's disapproval ends the regulation, but until then the manager's rules control. At minimum those regulations set reasonable criteria for rating age, size, species, condition and historic association, procedures for weighing the public-health-and-safety injury that removal would cause against any diminution in the property owner's use or value, and an appeal path to city council under Sec. 6-2-51. Sec. 6-2-39 also lets the arborist and manager put a tree under interim historic protection for up to 30 days while the formal designation is pending, with a posted notice at the tree spelling out the ban on removal and the penalty for violating it; unauthorized removal of that posted notice is itself a separate chapter 6-2 offense.