Milpitas, CA Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

The Milpitas Municipal Code regulates who may plant a tree in the public right-of-way and how. Section X-2-4.01 makes it unlawful for anyone besides City personnel to plant a tree in a public right-of-way without a written permit from the Public Works Department, and the permit application must specify both the planting location and the tree variety. The only carve-out, Subsection 4.01-1, lets a subdivider or developer plant street trees or Other Plantings without a separate permit when the plantings were already required by City-approved subdivision or improvement plans and are installed under Public Works supervision.

Because Milpitas defines a parkway in Section X-2-2.12 as the portion of a street other than the roadway or the sidewalk, the planting-permit rule effectively governs the strip most residents call their parkway. Any tree planted there must also be an Approved Street Tree drawn from the Approved Street Tree List that the Public Works Department maintains and revises under Section X-2-3.02. When the City itself plants, Section X-2-5.01-1 requires the Public Works Director to select species suited to the site from that same list and to install them to the City's official street tree planting standard detail; the current resident, or the owner if there is no resident, is then responsible for watering and protecting the tree in its planting easement. A resident who objects to where the City has planted a tree may appeal in writing to the Public Works Director within two weeks of the planting notification, per Section X-2-5.01-2.

An unauthorized planting, or one using an unapproved species, can be pursued as a public nuisance under Section X-2-8.02, with abatement costs recoverable from the property owner under Sections X-2-9.01 and X-2-11.