Bellflower Municipal Code Ch. 12.45 Public Tree Management

This chapter is adopted under the municipal affairs provisions of the City Charter. It establishes the responsibilities, policies, standards, and regulations needed to keep the City's urban forest safe and healthy using accepted industry management standards. The City adopts this chapter to protect, preserve, and enhance its urban forest.

(Ord. 1459, 8/10/2026)

Unless the contrary is stated or clearly appears from the context, the following definitions will govern the construction of the words and phrases used in this chapter.

"Director"

means the Director of Public Works or designee.

"Easement" or "right-of-way"

means land owned by another party over which the City holds an easement or right-of-way for street and related purposes.

"Maintain" or "maintenance"

means activities such as, but not limited to, trimming, root-pruning, spraying, watering, fertilizing, mulching, treating disease or injury, or any other similar act which promotes the safety, growth, beauty and life of any public tree.

"Owner"

means and includes all persons who have legal interest in private real property, as well as tenants, lessees, and other persons who have control or possession of, or who are responsible for private real property.

"Parkway"

refers to that portion of a street right-of-way which is available for landscaping, and not for curb, gutter or pavement.

"Person"

means and includes any individual, partnership of any kind, corporation, limited liability company, association, joint venture, trust or other organization, however formed, as well as trustees, heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, or any combination of such persons. "Person" also includes any public entity or agency that acts as an owner in the City.

"Pruning," "trimming" or "thinning"

means and includes any act by which the reduction of the density of a public tree using professionally accepted arboricultural standards occurs.

"Public tree"

means any City-owned tree which is located within any public park, City right-of-way, median, parkway, planting easement, or on any other City-owned property. A public tree does not include those trees that were planted without the City's permission or where the City did not acquire title.

"Responsible person"

means and includes any person, whether as an owner as defined in this section, or otherwise, who allows, causes, creates, maintains, or permits a violation of this chapter to exist or continue, by any act or the omission of any act or duty. The actions or inactions of a responsible person's agent, employee, representative, service provider or contractor will be attributable to that responsible person. Such persons will also constitute responsible persons.

"Topping," "stubbing" or "pollarding"

means removal of a branch to a stub, bud or lateral branch not large enough to assume a terminal role which produces less desirable results than more moderate pruning with respect to the natural form of the tree and which is generally hazardous to the overall health and the stability of the tree.

"Urban Forest Master Plan"

means a written document developed and implemented by the City which sets forth policies, procedures, standards, and other relevant guidelines regarding the selection, planting, maintenance and removal of public trees, and establishes general preservation and planned management objectives to promote and perpetuate a sustainable urban forest. This Master Plan will include an approved tree palette.

(Ord. 1459, 8/10/2026)

The powers and duties of the Director under this chapter are as follows:

A. To have charge of, direct and supervise the planting, maintenance and removal of any public tree.

B. To establish and revise when necessary, the Urban Forest Master Plan which states policies, procedures, and standards concerning the selection, planting, maintenance, and removal of public trees.

C. To review all landscaping, construction, or development plans when the proposed actions may directly or indirectly affect the health or welfare of public trees.

D. To grant or deny the issuance of all permits for the planting, pruning or maintenance of public trees.

E. To issue permits authorized by this chapter including, where desirable, appropriate conditions of approval.

F. To prepare and keep appropriate records of all Public Trees as deemed necessary.

G. To enforce the provisions of this chapter.

H. To require that the planting, maintenance, pruning, and removal of public trees conform to recognized arboricultural standards, including the ANSI A300 standards and the International Society of Arboriculture Best Management Practices, and to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Guidelines for Developing and Evaluating Tree Ordinances.

(Ord. 1459, 8/10/2026)

When it is necessary to assign a value to a public tree, the latest edition of the International Society of Arboriculture Guide for Plant Appraisal will be used.

(Ord. 1459, 8/10/2026)

A. A person must obtain a written permit from the Director before undertaking, causing, or allowing any of the following:

1. Planting, pruning, root pruning, thinning, trimming, or otherwise performing, causing or allowing an act of maintenance to occur on a public tree.

2. Apply pesticides to a public tree.

3. Engaging in any form of alteration, construction, demolition, relocation, or repair of a building or structure, or commencing any other form of improvement on City or private real property that may directly or indirectly affect the health or welfare of a public tree. A permit is required under this chapter notwithstanding any other, additional or alternative, permits that may be authorized by this code.

B. A permit application must be made on a form provided by the Director. The City will charge a fee for each permit under this section, set by the current adopted user fee schedule.

C. The Director must issue a permit if the public interest is best served by the action and the service provider will meet the standards in the Urban Forest Master Plan. Each permit must state an expiration date, and the work must be completed within the time the permit allows and in the manner it describes. A permit is void if its terms are violated.

D. The Director may impose conditions to any permit in order to protect the health and welfare of public trees.

E. Work undertaken by the permittee or their agents may be stopped immediately and the permit may be revoked by oral or written order of the Director when it is determined that the program of work or conditions violates the terms of the permit.

F. City personnel, contractors and service providers who remove a Public Tree pursuant to a written agreement with the City are exempt from the requirements of this section.

(Ord. 1459, 8/10/2026)

It is unlawful for any person to do, cause, or allow the following activities or conditions to occur:

A. Damage, carve, disturb, transplant, prune, root prune or remove any Public Tree, or undertake any other action that may directly or indirectly affect the health and welfare of a public tree, except as provided in Section 12.45.050.

B. Top, stub, or pollard any public tree.

C. Cause or allow any poison or other substance harmful to tree life to lie, leak, pour, flow or drip upon or into the soil within the drip line of any public tree; or set or allow any fire to burn when the fire or its heat will injure any portion of a public tree; or to operate any device, equipment, object or tool such as a mechanical weeding device, in such a manner as to cause damage to a public tree in any way.

D. Except pursuant to a permit issued by the Director pursuant to Section 12.45.050, improve a City easement or public dedication area, or parkway that is on or abuts private real property with structures or hardscape materials (including, but not limited to, concrete, asphalt, bricks or pavers) or to otherwise place, store or maintain any stone, brick, concrete, lumber, tile, pipe or other personal property in such areas when such actions, structures, materials and items could directly or indirectly damage a public tree because of harm or possible harm to its root system or any portion of the tree or when such actions, structures, materials and items could compact the soil over roots or otherwise impede free passage of water, air or fertilizer to the root system of a public tree.

E. Cause or allow irrigation on or in close proximity in such a manner as to cause harm, decline or death to a public tree.

F. Fail to install, implement or maintain sufficient guards or protectors, as identified in the Urban Forest Master Plan, during any construction or repair to, or alteration or demolition of a structure, or other improvement on City or private real property to prevent injury, harm or detriment to any public tree. Prior written approval of the Director, or their designee, must be obtained before such devices are installed or implemented.

G. Undertake actions for which a permit is required; exceed the scope of a permit; violate the condition of a permit or perform actions after a permit has expired.

(Ord. 1459, 8/10/2026)

A. Any person who violates any provision of this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor, unless the city attorney charges the offense as an infraction.

B. Responsible persons are jointly and severally liable to the City for the appraised value of each public tree removed in violation of this chapter, as well as each damaged or injured public tree that the Director determines will not regain its complete health, appearance or life expectancy as a result of an action or inaction that constitutes a violation of this chapter.

C. Responsible persons who unlawfully remove an entire public tree, or who partially remove, damage or injure a public tree in violation of this chapter, which the Director determines must then be entirely removed, will also mitigate the loss of said tree to the urban forest as follows:

1. Public trees must be replaced at a ratio of 3 to 1, either on the site of their removal or in another public area in the City as determined by the Director.

2. Responsible persons will be jointly and severally liable to the City for the removal costs and disposal charges or fees in connection with any damaged public tree. These include, without limitation, the costs and expenses that the City incurs when City personnel are used, or those fees and expenses that a contractor charges the City for its services. When a contractor removes and disposes a public tree, the responsible persons, will also be jointly and severally liable to the City for staff time of city personnel overseeing the project.

3. Tree replacement size will be determined based upon the tree valuation pursuant to Section 12.45.040. Responsible persons will be jointly and severally liable for the City's purchase and delivery of such trees to the selected locations, as well as for the cost of the installation.

4. If the Director elects not to designate a replacement location, the responsible person will nevertheless be jointly and severally liable for the City's present cost of replacement trees, which funds, when received, will be placed in a public tree fund and used for public tree planting projects in the City.

5. The responsible persons must tender full payment for the liabilities described in this section within 10 calendar days of the date the Director issues a written request for payment. The City's receipt of full payment of liabilities from one responsible person will inure to the benefit of any other responsible persons. The City may collect unpaid sums in any manner allowed by law.

D. The liabilities set forth in this section will be in addition to any other fines, damages or other sanctions that may be imposed on a responsible person pursuant to Civil Code § 3346 or other applicable law.

E. The penalties and consequences provided for in this section are cumulative and not exclusive.

(Ord. 1459, 8/10/2026)

Should any person disagree with a determination made by the Director, they may appeal to the City Manager or their designee. All appeals must be made in writing and state the basis for the appeal.

(Ord. 1459, 8/10/2026)