Piscataway, NJ Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Section 20-507 of the Piscataway Township Code lists the improvements a subdivider must install or guarantee before receiving final subdivision approval, and subsection e. sets the Township's shade tree standard for every new street. Trees go in the right-of-way, not on private lots, and the spacing must fall between 35 and 75 feet apart, wide enough to avoid a solid tree wall but tight enough to guarantee consistent street canopy along the frontage. Every tree must be nursery grown with a minimum caliper of two and one-half inches, measured one foot above the ground, and the exact placement of each tree needs sign-off from the Director of Community Development or a designee rather than being left to the subdivider's engineer.

The section also requires ten-inch root barriers, of a type the Township approves, installed adjacent to sidewalks and curbs and centered at each tree, which protects the new sidewalk and curb from root heave as the trees mature. Planting method and species selection are not left open either: § 20-507(e) sends subdividers to the planting specifications the Township Landscape Architect keeps on file in the Community Development office, and to Plate 5, the standard construction detail attached to Chapter 20. Because this requirement lives inside the subdivision improvements chapter rather than the zoning chapter, it applies at the time a new subdivision plat is built out, tying the shade tree obligation to the same performance guarantees, Township Engineer inspection and final-plat process that cover streets, curbs and sidewalks elsewhere in § 20-507.