Clay, NY Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Chapter 200, Subdivision of Land, is Clay's plat-review code, adopted by the Town Board on April 19, 1957 under Article 16 of the Town Law, and it is the Planning Board, not the Zoning Board or Highway Department, that reviews and approves subdivision plats under § 200-1. Section 200-4, Design standards, lays out the physical requirements a subdivider must meet before the Board will approve a plat, covering street layout, easements, blocks and lots in Subsections A through E; Subsection F, Street trees, addresses planting distance directly: trees should be set five to 10 feet from any existing sidewalk, or, where there is no sidewalk yet, five to 10 feet from the street line, with the exact distance within that range depending on how tall the species grows at maturity.

Because the rule sits inside the subdivision design standards rather than a separate tree ordinance, it is applied at the plat-approval stage: an applicant files a preliminary plat under § 200-3 with the fee set in Chapter 105, and the Planning Board can require compliance with § 200-4 as a condition of approval. Under § 200-7, the Board may grant a variance from the design standards, including the tree-planting distance, where unusual lot shape, topography or other physical features would otherwise create an extraordinary hardship, so long as the variance does not defeat the purpose of the Official Map, the Zoning Chapter or the subdivision regulations themselves.