York County, VA Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

Sec. 20.5-84(b) of the York County Subdivision Ordinance, Tree planting and replacement, requires deciduous shade or ornamental trees to be planted as street trees along all rights-of-way within and abutting a subdivision located in a nonindustrial zoning district. Under Sec. 20.5-84(b)(6), the trees must be spaced at a minimum of one tree approximately every 40 linear feet, and each tree planted to satisfy the requirement must have a minimum caliper of 2.5 inches and otherwise conform to the zoning ordinance's landscaping standards. The trees can sit inside the public right-of-way itself or within a 10-foot landscape preservation easement running alongside it; where the subdivider uses an easement, it must be dedicated, together with a maintenance easement, to the property owners' association or another entity the subdivision agent and county attorney approve.

Existing trees within 20 feet of the right-of-way edge can count toward the planting requirement if they are protected and preserved to the zoning ordinance's standards. This street tree mandate sits alongside Sec. 20.5-84(b)(1), which requires 20 percent tree canopy coverage on residential lots within 20 years under section 15.2-961 of the Code of Virginia, and Sec. 20.5-84(c), which sets a 35-foot landscaped buffer along the county's major roads. Planning and Development Services reviews the street tree layout as part of every subdivision's development plan before construction begins.