Charles County, MD Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Section 297-95 establishes the Core Employment/Residential (CER), Core Retail/Residential (CRR), and Core Mixed Residential (CMR) Zones to build walkable, mixed-use areas anchored by streets designed as public places. Subsection C's streetscape standards apply to any development requiring a subdivision plan or site plan, and they rank required elements by priority when right-of-way is too narrow to fit everything: sidewalks come first, then streetlights, then street trees, then landscape strips, with the Planning Director making the final call on constrained sites. " Spacing is fixed at one large shade tree per 40 linear feet of frontage on public streets and major private streets, planted 35 to 45 feet apart on center, close enough to form a continuous canopy without crowding root zones.

Planting standards give developers two compliance paths: an underground planter at least six feet by eight feet with structural soil amendments, or a planting site prepared with a minimum of 120 cubic feet of rootable soil, also amended with structural soil, to keep roots from heaving the adjacent sidewalk. Where there isn't room for full-size trees to survive, the code allows substituting seasonal displays in above-ground planter boxes instead. Sidewalks in these zones are also required to be separated from the street by a landscape strip wherever the right-of-way allows, specifically to make room for these street trees and buffer pedestrians from traffic.