Arapahoe County, CO Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)
Key Facts
- Governing section
- LDC § 4-1.4.F, Rights-of-Way and Medians
- Installation trigger
- Before permits for 20% of approved dwelling units
- Driveway/alley setback
- No tree within 8 feet of a driveway or alley
- Sight-triangle shrub height
- Under 36 inches above roadway flow line
- Median turf
- No turf grass permitted in medians
- Applies to
- Unincorporated Arapahoe County rights-of-way only
Summary
Unincorporated Arapahoe County regulates trees and shrubs planted in county rights-of-way and medians under LDC § 4-1.4.F. Right-of-way landscaping tied to a residential project must begin before the county issues building permits for 20 percent of the approved dwelling units, and every tree or shrub in the curbside strip must meet fixed setback, spacing and sight-line clearances.
f. Rights-of-Way and Medians. i. General: The landscaping of any County right-of-way or medians associated with a residential development project based upon an approved landscape plan shall begin before the issuance of building permits for 20 percent of the dwelling units approved in the project. ii. Landscape Criteria: 1. No turf grass shall be planted in medians. Hardscape in medians shall be minimized. 2. Landscape elements placed adjacent to existing and proposed roadways (in the right-of-way) shall be designed to minimize conflicts between vehicular and pedestrian traffic... The placement of trees and shrubs in the County rights-of-way shall be as required in Table 4-1.4.8, Tree and Shrub Right-of-Way Requirements... 5. No tree shall be planted closer than eight feet from any driveway or alley... 9. All shrubs placed within sight triangles and sight line areas shall be kept below 36 inches in height from the existing roadway flow line or 30 inches from the top of the existing curb, whichever results in a shorter plant height.
Full Breakdown
F, Rights-of-Way and Medians, it applies only to unincorporated Arapahoe County; Aurora, Centennial, Littleton and the county's other incorporated cities administer their own tree ordinances. i, General, once a residential development's landscape plan is approved, right-of-way and median landscaping must begin before the county issues building permits for 20 percent of the project's approved dwelling units, the developer cannot defer the parkway strip until the subdivision is built out. 8, Tree and Shrub Right-of-Way Requirements, which fixes setbacks from pavement, sidewalks and back-of-curb by plant type and required vertical clearance over pedestrian and vehicle paths.
The same subsection adds hard numeric placement rules: trees must be centered in the curbside strip between back of curb and sidewalk, kept out of the AASHTO clear zone, and set back at least eight feet from any driveway or alley. Evergreens should not be planted along the immediate west and south edges of roadways because they shade pavement and promote ice buildup in freeze-thaw cycles. Any shrub inside a sight triangle or sight line area must stay under 36 inches above the roadway flow line, or 30 inches above the top of curb if that is shorter.
Because the applicant, not the county, plants and irrigates the strip, a Landscape Maintenance Agreement with the county is required before installation, and the criteria apply to Arapahoe County rights-of-way only, CDOT and municipal rights-of-way are governed by those agencies instead.
Violations & Fines
Arapahoe County's Public Works and Development Division enforces § 4-1.4.F through the development-review and building-permit process rather than citations to individual homeowners: a project's building permits can be withheld once the 20-percent-of-units threshold is reached without the required right-of-way landscaping installed, and the county will not maintain non-conforming plantings, encroachments onto sidewalks or trails, or shrubs that block sight triangles until they are corrected under the Landscape Maintenance Agreement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this rule apply inside Aurora or Centennial?
How close to a driveway can I plant a parkway tree?
Can I plant turf grass in a road median?
When must right-of-way landscaping be installed?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Arapahoe County
Compare Arapahoe County to another location·View the Colorado tree protection overview
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