La Habra, CA Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Section 12.20.030, in Chapter 12.20, Parkway Trees and Shrubs, gives the parkway maintenance division foreman authority to regulate and control the planting and removal of trees along any city street, including designating species, kind, number, spacing and planting method for official trees. Subsection A sets hard spacing minimums: no tree may be planted closer than fifty feet to another parkway tree, closer than twenty feet to a utility pole or light standard, closer than twenty feet from a driveway or approach, or closer than ten feet from a gas meter, water meter or fire hydrant.

Subsection B addresses parkway width itself: no tree may be planted in a parkway less than thirty inches wide between the sidewalk and curb except with the division supervisor's approval, though species on the city's designated official tree list may go into narrower parkways, down to twenty-four inches wide. Section 12.20.010 defines 'official tree' as a species the parkway maintenance division supervisor determines is best suited for the city's streets based on growth, beauty, root structure and disease resistance, with the current list available at the foreman's office during normal working hours; an 'undesirable tree' is one planted before that list existed that does not meet the official criteria.

Anyone wanting to plant a tree along a city street or on other city property must first request permission in writing from the supervisor under § 12.20.020, and the supervisor can require the work to be done under city parkway staff supervision. The chapter traces to Ordinance No. 1003, adopted in 1977.