Greenville, NC Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

City Code § 6-5-2 gives the tree ordinance jurisdiction over all tree and shrub planting, maintenance, and removal in the public right-of-way, parkways, and other city-owned or maintained property, plus planting inside off-street parking lots the city owns and operates. The City Arborist, a position the City Manager appoints under § 6-5-4, administers all of it.

Among the Arborist's specific duties in § 6-5-5(B), the city has to formulate a comprehensive master street tree plan that includes planting and preservation of street trees on undeveloped rights-of-way prior to street construction, set tree-planting priorities, write arboricultural specifications and planting-and-maintenance standards, and keep an approved tree and shrub list that governs which species can go into rights-of-way, parkways, and city parking lots.

Section 6-5-6(B) puts a permit requirement behind all of it: anyone who wants to plant a tree or shrub in a public right-of-way, public area, or open city-owned parking lot has to get a written permit from the City Arborist first, on forms the Arborist supplies, at least five days before the planned work per § 6-5-6(D). Public utility companies get a similar track: a standard permit for a specific job, or, under § 6-5-6(C)(2), a master permit good for up to one year that covers continual work, provided the company describes its planned treatment, excavation, or trenching in the application. The Arborist can waive the permit requirement during storm emergencies under § 6-5-7.