West Covina, CA Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

A tree earns heritage status when the Planning Commission finds it historically associated with a place, building, natural feature, or significant event; listed on a historic or cultural resources survey as a landmark or district feature; representative of a key period in the City's development; or designated for protection in a specific plan, conditional use permit, precise plan, or subdivision map, per Sec. 26-258. Every native Southern California black walnut (Juglans californica) is a heritage tree automatically, except those on R-1 or R-A lots created by subdivisions recorded before the protecting ordinance took effect, or on parking lots where the City approved planting them under an approved landscape plan.

Removing, relocating, or destroying a heritage tree, including for a building-permit applicant, needs a tree permit from the Planning Commission and/or Public Services Department, and the applicant must supply the mailing labels for the required five-hundred-foot property-owner notification, per Sec. 26-259(b). During any nearby development activity, Sec. 26-263 bars grading, construction, material storage, or wire attachment within a heritage tree's dripline, requires a chain-link or steel-stake construction barrier at least six feet high enclosing the entire dripline installed before work begins and kept up through construction, prohibits soil compaction inside the dripline, and keeps root cutting outside roughly three-and-a-half times the trunk diameter unless the tree permit allows otherwise. No structure or paving may sit within the dripline or a six-foot radius of the trunk without permit approval.