Coweta County, GA Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

Coweta County's tree preservation ordinance, Article 25A of the Zoning and Development Ordinance, creates a protected category called "specimen trees": those unique for age, size, species, or historic relevance. Section 253A(6) sets objective size thresholds that trigger the designation: large hardwoods such as oaks, poplars, or sweetgums qualify at 24 inches in diameter or larger; large softwoods such as pines or deodar cedar qualify at 30 inches or larger; and small trees such as dogwoods, redbuds, or sourwoods qualify at just 8 inches or larger. A tree must also meet condition criteria: a life expectancy over 15 years, a sound trunk with no extensive decay, no more than one major dead limb, and no major insect or disease problem. The county arborist/landscape architect can also designate a smaller tree as a specimen if it is rare or historically significant, used as a landscape focal point, or has exceptional aesthetic quality.

Once identified during the survey process, a specimen tree must be highlighted on the tree protection plan submitted to the Coweta County Planning Department, and building design, parking layout, drainage, and utility placement must be reworked to work around it. If a specimen tree is removed during development, the applicant owes an inch-for-inch replacement with trees of at least three-inch caliper. Removal without the county arborist's prior review and approval doubles that penalty to a two-times inch-for-inch replacement, and can trigger a stop-work order from the planning director. The planning director, consulting with the arborist, may exempt a specimen tree from replacement only where it sits in a building footprint that cannot be relocated, in a grading zone with more than a three-foot cut a retaining wall cannot protect, or in the path of a required driveway.