Corona, CA Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Corona Code of Ordinances § 12.22.050(C)(1) assigns day-to-day parkway upkeep to the abutting owner: "Property owner. To the owners of the property on which a parkway is located or of the property on which the encroaching landscape material originates... Among other responsibilities, property owners shall remove overgrown trees (other than shared responsibility trees), shrubs and other landscape materials and weeds in the parkway or that encroach on a parkway." A "parkway" is defined at § 12.22.030(G) as the strip between the sidewalk and curb, or, where there is no sidewalk, between the curb and the property line.

Watering follows the same split under subsection (D): property owners water everything in the parkway fronting their land, including shared responsibility trees, unless the parkway sits within a landscape maintenance district or community facilities district, in which case the city waters it. The city keeps exclusive planting and removal authority over "shared responsibility trees," defined at § 12.22.030(K) as trees planted in a parkway "at the city's express written direction and approval"; a tree planted in a parkway without that written city approval is instead a "private tree" that the chapter does not regulate.

Section 12.22.060(A) lets a parkway property owner "alter, remove and plant any landscape materials on or in the parkway" without city sign-off, but landscape materials under this chapter "does not include trees," so unauthorized tree planting in the parkway falls outside that owner permission. Violations of Chapter 12.22 are enforced under Chapter 1.08's general nuisance and penalty procedures per § 12.22.090, and the chapter was substantially rewritten by Ordinance 3328 in 2021.