Bloomfield, NJ Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Article I of Chapter 535 in the Bloomfield Township Code protects trees in public highways, parking strips and parks. Section 535-9 makes it unlawful to plant or set out a shade tree on any part of a public highway or park within Bloomfield Township without first obtaining a written permit from the Township Engineer, and the planter must comply in all respects with the conditions in that permit. The same prohibition reaches anyone who causes, authorizes or procures another person to do the planting.

Property owners have a second route. Section 535-10 lets the Township plant trees in public highways at suitable times of the year on the written request and application of an abutting property owner. The owner pays the reasonable cost of the tree, and the Township Council fixes that cost by resolution from time to time. The annual Township budget can carry appropriations for the estimated cost of the trees planted that year.

The Code also prints size and spacing language for street trees. Section 535-15 defines a major tree as a deciduous tree with a mature height of at least 50 feet and a caliper of at least 2 1/2 inches measured 4 1/2 feet above the ground when planted, with red Norway, silver or sugar maple, sweetgum, London plane tree and American sycamore among the listed examples. A minor tree is an evergreen, ornamental or other small tree at least six feet in height at planting. Under § 535-19D(7), an applicant removing trees from the right-of-way outside the curbline of a proposed roadway plants major trees as street trees, on center a distance of 30 feet, between the curbline and the edge of the right-of-way, in a location determined by the Township Engineer.

Once a tree is in place, § 535-4 requires a written permit from the Township Engineer to place stone, cement or other material that obstructs the free access of air and water to the roots, and § 535-7 requires one to attach a rope, wire, sign or other device to a tree. Under § 535-2C a tree taken down in a public highway is immediately replaced unless the Township Engineer finds replacement undesirable for good cause shown.