Effingham County, GA Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Sec. 30-426 of the Effingham County Code (Ord. No. 2026-023, effective March 3, 2026) sets the planting standards that apply to street trees along rights-of-way. Under subsection (d), street trees must be planted at intervals not exceeding 50 feet unless otherwise approved by the county manager or designee. Subsection (c) directs that native, non-invasive species be prioritized in every planting plan, and subsection (e) goes further by requiring at least 75 percent of replacement trees to be native to the Effingham County region of Georgia, with non-native species allowed only when the county manager approves them to satisfy the species diversity rules of Sec.

30-424. Minimum planting sizes are fixed at subsection (b): two-inch caliper for canopy trees and one and a half-inch caliper for understory trees, and subsection (a) requires planting during the designated tree-planting season. Sec. 30-452(a) separately credits maintained street trees toward the county's 25 percent minimum tree canopy requirement, but only if they are protected in accordance with the species diversity standards of Sec. 30-424, and requires that street trees be maintained per Appendix C, Article V, Sec. 5.9.8(d) of the zoning ordinance. Because these are development-side obligations tied to land-disturbance and site-plan approval rather than a public-right-of-way maintenance program, a developer's tree protection plan submitted under Sec. 30-443 must show street tree spacing and species on the plot plan before the county manager will approve the land disturbance permit.