Sandy, UT Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

' The Urban Forester can locate and record healthy specimens that qualify for the Utah Heritage Tree Register, working alongside the Parks and Recreation Department and the Community Development Department. This heritage designation sits inside a broader stewardship program: the same section makes the Urban Forester responsible for the long-term management, inventory, planting and design of City trees, and requires an annual written report to the Parks and Recreation Director. Separately, the ordinance protects tree cover during development. Tree surveys are required as part of development review for any City or private tree, or grove of trees, of at least three-inch caliper, and the Community Development Department and Urban Forester review those surveys to decide which trees can be preserved or relocated.

Site designs should be modified where practically possible to accommodate significant tree cover, root zones must be protected from compaction and excessive excavation during construction, and clear-cutting an area of trees is not allowed unless the Community Development Department and Urban Forester determine it is appropriate. The code does not create a separate protected-species list; the only species-neutral standard is this development-triggered survey and the Heritage Tree Register nomination process. First adopted at LDC 2008 §15A-25-03 and by Ord. No. 18-02 in 2018, the section was amended by Ord. 21-08 (2021), Ord. 22-16 (2022), Ord. 23-08 (2023) and Ord. 26-50 (2026).