Texas City, TX Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Section 90.031 of the Texas City Code of Ordinances, Location of Trees or Shrubbery Planted Along Sidewalks, fixes where street-side plantings go. Division (A) requires all trees or shrubbery planted along or upon the sidewalks of any public street in the city to be set out in a straight line running parallel to the curb and at a distance of three feet from the outside line of the curb or sidewalk space. The rule has two measurable parts: a straight line parallel to the curb, and a three foot distance from the outside line of the curb or sidewalk space.

Division (B) reaches two kinds of violator. Any person who plants or sets out trees or shrubbery, and any owner who plants or sets out trees or shrubbery upon sidewalk space abutting his or her property, in violation of the section is guilty of a misdemeanor. A homeowner who has a contractor plant the strip beside the sidewalk is therefore exposed as the owner, and the planter is exposed as the person who set the trees out.

The code defines STREET in § 90.025 to include all of the public way from property line to property line, including sidewalks, driveways, grass plots, curbs and the part used by vehicles, which is why grass strips beside the curb fall under Chapter 90.

Other Chapter 90 rules apply on top of this planting line. Corner triangles, extending 20 feet along each curbline from the curb intersection point, limit plants other than trees to three feet in height from the street gutter flow line under § 90.093, and § 90.094 requires trees in those areas to have no branches or foliage lower than 15 feet. Section 90.091 lets the city enter and remove prohibited growth from those corners without liability to the owners.