Chatham County, GA Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Under Code of Chatham County §24-209, new single-family subdivisions must provide 1,600 Tree Quality Points per acre to hit a 50 percent canopy-cover target, met mainly through required street trees planted in Tree Easements, plus protected existing trees, developer set-asides, and individual-lot plantings. A Tree Easement is at least ten feet wide, dedicated for public planting, retention and maintenance of canopy street trees, and administrative approval is required to exceed ten feet. Street trees within an easement are planted and maintained by the County itself, not the lot owner.

Utilities crossing a Tree Easement must stay outside a tree's critical root zone unless the County Arborist approves otherwise, and utility placement has to preserve the 40-to-60-foot street tree spacing. Two plan submittals are required: a Greenspace Plan accompanying the Preliminary Plan for rights-of-way, drainage and utility easements before a Land-Disturbing Activities Permit issues for those areas, and a Plot Plan with greenspace information from the building-permit applicant for each individual lot. Procedurally, the County Arborist and the owner or agent hold a pre-development site visit (waivable by the Arborist), the roadway centerlines and rights-of-way are staked at 100-foot stations after Sketch Plan approval for field review, and the developer must document how the 1,600-point-per-acre requirement will be met before Land-Disturbing Activities Permits for the subdivision or its phases are issued.