Brookhaven, NY Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Town Code § 85-843, Article XXXIV (Land Development Standards), sets the baseline for parkway and street-frontage tree planting on commercial development. Subsection A(3) requires street trees with a minimum caliper of four inches, planted and maintained adjacent to all road frontages in an amount equal to 30 feet on center, in accordance with Town standards. The same article layers on stricter rules for the Main Street Business District: street trees must sit within the right-of-way between sidewalk and curb in a four-foot-wide landscape cutout, and every lot must carry at least one street tree, with corner lots requiring a minimum of two.

Parking-lot landscape strips and aisles must also include four-inch-caliper trees at a minimum of one tree per 30 feet, on top of the separate parking-lot landscaping requirement. Section 85-843A(1) sets the umbrella rule that at least 20% of a commercial site be maintained as landscaped or natural area, with at least half of that area in the front yard, so the street tree count is layered onto a broader landscape-area mandate rather than standing alone. Section 85-846, added by Local Law No. 13-2019, supplies the enforceable species list referenced in § 85-843: it names the preferred street tree species (including Trident Maple, Hedge Maple and Amur Maple) and separately bars a list of prohibited species, among them Ailanthus, White and Silver Birch, Box Elder, Cottonwood, Siberian Elm, White and Green Ash, Silver Maple, Pin Oak, Russian Olive, Poplar, weeping trees, willows and all evergreens, subject to Planning Board approval for substitutions.

Existing large trees over nine inches in diameter at breast height can offset new planting: preserving one relieves the applicant of installing three parking-lot or street trees nearby. All required street tree and landscape work must be completed before a certificate of occupancy is issued.