Woodbridge, NJ Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Code § 25-8.2(k) lists planting a tree or shrub in a street area among the acts a person may not do without a prior Township permit, alongside cutting, pruning and removal. Section 25-8.5(a) then ties every planting permit to conformance with the Comprehensive Plan and Program for Public Way Arboriculture, the document the Director is charged with executing under § 25-8.4(c) through the yearly public way arboriculture program and budget. The Director also keeps a location-by-location inventory of the public way tree stock by size, condition and species (§ 25-8.4(b)), which feeds decisions on where and what to plant.

When a removal permit is granted, the replacement planting must likewise use an approved species from the Plan and Program, or an alternative planting arrangement it authorizes; a resident who would rather not plant a replacement pays a $150 waiver fee to the Township instead (§ 25-8.5(c)). Utility companies get a narrower path: the Township can issue them a blanket permit only for pruning and for installing or maintaining plant construction that interferes with or endangers street trees, not for discretionary new planting (§ 25-8.3(a)). Appeals from a denied planting permit go to the Municipal Council under § 25-8.4(a), the same route used for removal denials.