Gilroy, CA Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Gilroy's tree chapter puts the parks and recreation director in charge of what grows along the city's public streets. Under Section 26.4, the director determines which tree species are suitable for street planting after consulting landscape architects, arborists, nurserymen and park executives, and the resulting master tree list takes effect once the parks and recreation commission approves it and it is filed in the commission's office. Section 26.5 makes it unlawful to plant any tree in or overhanging a public street unless the species is on that master tree list, unless the director first issues a written permit to plant an off-list species, and that permit itself requires the commission's approval.

Beyond species selection, Section 26.5-1 requires the director to develop a master street tree planting plan assigning specific species to specific locations citywide; once the commission approves and files that plan, every tree planted in a public street after that point must be of the plan's designated species for that location. The director holds parallel jurisdiction under Section 26.6 over the placement, care, trimming, removal, relocation and replacement of street trees, and any change to the master tree list or the planting plan goes through the same director-drafts, commission-approves, file-with-commission process used to adopt the originals.

Where new subdivisions are involved, Section 26.16 folds street tree planting into the subdivision process required by Section 21.35 and requires the subdivider or developer, not the city, to pay the fees needed to cover the city's actual time and material cost of the plantings. A person aggrieved by any decision the director makes under this chapter can appeal first to the parks and recreation commission and then to the city council under Section 26.13, and the council's decision after a public hearing is final.