Greenville County Tree Ordinance, Town by Town

The city limits decide which code applies

Greenville County's rule is Chapter 17, Article IV of the county code, Ordinance 4173, passed on January 22, 2008. It is written for land development, and its exemption clause (section 17-53(B)) says the article "shall not apply to individual dwelling lots, farms, undeveloped acreage, agricultural acreage, existing commercial or industrial properties, or any other real property that is not being developed (or redeveloped), substantially changed, or subdivided." That is the rule for every address outside a city, and the Census Bureau lists Taylors (23,222 people in 2020) and Five Forks (17,737) as census-designated places, which have no city government, so the county rule is theirs too.

Inside a city, that city's code takes over, and the seven cities on this page wrote seven different rules. Greenville's reaches a homeowner's own yard; Simpsonville's sets a 12-inch line and then exempts single-family property; Mauldin, Travelers Rest and Fountain Inn aim their chapters at street and park trees; Greer and Easley tie theirs to development permits, with Easley keeping two homeowner duties. The table carries each one in the code's own terms.

The one city rule that reaches an ordinary yard

Of the eight local governments with a tree rule on this page, only the City of Greenville tells a homeowner, in so many words, to file before an ordinary yard tree comes down; Easley keeps two duties that can reach one, covered further down. Its page says the council "approved an update to its tree preservation and management plan" in January 2021, and the update turns on a date: a home bought after June 30, 2021 is under the ordinance, while a home bought before that date is not "unless other construction or development is occurring on site."

The Tree Disturbance Application ties the size thresholds to ordinance section 19-6.3(H)(6) and asks for the trees over 6 inches to be removed, their total diameter at breast height, and whether the tree "is completely on my property and is not within the right-of-way or shared with any adjacent property owners." The 20-inch and 40-inch heritage lines are measured in diameter, and the exemption for a dead, dying, unhealthy or unsafe tree depends on a certified arborist saying so, which is a sentence worth getting in writing before the saw starts.

Simpsonville's 12-inch line, and the sentence that sets a house lot outside it

Simpsonville's zoning ordinance is the only code on this page that names a trunk size for an ordinary permit: section 7.11.2 requires a Tree Removal Permit "to remove any tree with a diameter at breast height (DBH) equal to or greater than 12 inches", and says the rule holds "regardless of the health or condition of the tree(s)". Back in Article 4, section 4.9.2 lists what the standards do not reach, starting with "At any single-family residential property", and closes with "Unless exempt or not applicable, no tree shall be removed except in accordance with the procedures set forth in Article 7." Read together, a single-family lot is outside the permit, a duplex, a church or a shop is not, and the Planning Director is the person who answers for a lot that is neither plainly one nor the other.

Three cities whose chapters stop at the curb

Mauldin, Travelers Rest and Fountain Inn each have a tree chapter, and each aims it at public property. Mauldin's section 42-3 names what the chapter covers and then excludes "single-family lots which now exist or appear on recorded plats of subdivisions"; its section 42-5(b) is the one a homeowner can trip over, because a tree in the strip the city holds a right-of-way over cannot be trimmed or removed "without obtaining the prior written approval from the city administrator." Travelers Rest's chapter 3.08 claims "full power and authority over all trees, plants and shrubs located within street rights-of-way, parks and public places" and nothing more, apart from a nuisance tree on private land. Fountain Inn's chapter 20 says private property is "excluded from the provisions of this article" and defines a heritage tree at 20 inches and a historical tree at 30 inches, both measured "at a point 4½ feet above the normal ground level", for the site plans of land being developed.

Greer and Easley: rules written for development, with two Easley exceptions

Greer's Unified Development Ordinance, in its version of May 13, 2026, applies its tree protection part "to all land disturbing activities that require permit for existing and new development" and lists "Any residential development two or less acres in size" first among its exemptions, so a house on a lot is not what the section is for. Easley's UDO, presented on October 13, 2025, uses almost the same opening sentence and exempts "Residential property consisting of an existing single-family home", then takes two things back: the tree coverage table (one large tree per lot in the one-family district, a large tree being one "that will reach a mature height over fifty (50) feet") and street trees in approved subdivisions. Its replacement clause, 8.6.6(A), also counts "trees that meet the Large tree definition" on an existing single-family home, and section 8.1.4 makes it "unlawful for any property located within the City limits to clear land of trees, shrubs, and natural features without receiving approval from the Zoning Administrator." One large oak in an Easley back yard is a question for that office; a lot cleared to the dirt is a certainty.

Easley's table 8.6.6.A also prints the only mitigation prices on this page outside Greenville: on development sites, $20 per caliper inch for a 10 to 23 inch tree and $50 per caliper inch at 24 inches and up, as the alternative to replanting 33 or 50 percent of the inches removed. Water oaks, Bradford pears, invasive trees and pines under 24 inches are exempt from the section altogether.

Power lines and road strips answer to a different owner

None of the eight rules above tells a homeowner what to do about a limb in a power line; Greer's code lets the city ask an owner to trim one. Duke Energy's own page says a service drop is "the low-voltage power line running from our pole to your house or business" and tells customers to "Call Duke Energy Customer Service to request the line be de-energized before completing any tree work"; a reported hazard gets a visit from "our vegetation specialists", and the page gives no clearance distance in feet (Duke Energy, Tree Trimming Practices, read October 30, 2026). The strip between sidewalk and street belongs to whoever owns the road: Mauldin's approval rule above, Easley's requirement that trees in "a public or private right-of-way shall receive prior approval from the owner of the right-of-way", Travelers Rest's whole chapter, and Fountain Inn's SCDOT encroachment permit "for any landscaping work performed in the highway right-of-way" all say the same thing in four wordings.

What to ask for before the saw starts

Greenville Tree Pros puts homeowners in Greenville County in touch with an independent local tree company; the company comes out, checks the tree, and puts the price in writing. Ask that the written estimate name the rule it checked: for a Greenville address bought after mid-2021, that the Tree Disturbance Application went in; for a Simpsonville duplex or an Easley lot being cleared, who at the city said yes; for a tree in a road strip or a line, which owner was called. How a removal is priced once the rule is settled, by tree height and what sits under it, is laid out on the Greenville tree removal page that this table sits beneath. The plain-English version of the city, county and HOA layers, with the covenant check that no code on this page replaces, is the Greenville permit guide.

Where each rule was read, and when

1. Greenville County, SC Code of Ordinances, Chapter 17, Article IV, Tree Standards and Practices (Ordinance 4173, passed January 22, 2008), 2026 S-11, American Legal Publishing: Article IV index, 17-53 Application and exemptions, 17-62 Definitions, 17-63 Violations. Read October 30, 2026.
2. City of Greenville, Planning & Development, Landscaping & Trees, with its six homeowner questions opened. Read October 30, 2026.
3. City of Greenville, Tree Disturbance Application (e-form). Read October 30, 2026.
4. City of Greer, Unified Development Ordinance, 5.3.1 Landscaping, part H Tree Protection and Replacement, version May 13, 2026, Municode. Read October 30, 2026.
5. City of Mauldin, Code of Ordinances, Chapter 42 Vegetation, version October 12, 2026, Municode. Read October 30, 2026.
6. City of Simpsonville, Zoning Ordinance (PDF, printed December 2024; sections 4.9.2, 4.9.4 and 7.11). Read October 30, 2026.
7. City of Travelers Rest, Code of Ordinances, Chapter 3.08, version August 13, 2026, Municode. Read October 30, 2026.
8. City of Fountain Inn, Code of Ordinances, Chapter 20 Trees and Shrubs, version February 10, 2026, Municode. Read October 30, 2026.
9. City of Easley, Unified Development Ordinance (PDF, presented October 13, 2025, file updated April 29, 2026; sections 8.1.4, 8.5, 8.6 and the definitions), linked from the city's Codes, Maps & Ordinances page. Read October 30, 2026.
10. Pickens County, SC Code of Ordinances, Municode, searched for "tree" and "tree removal". Read October 30, 2026.
11. U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Five Forks CDP and Taylors CDP, South Carolina. Read October 30, 2026.
12. Duke Energy, Tree Trimming Practices & Procedures. Read October 30, 2026.

A council can amend any of these at one meeting, which is why the date sits beside every source. When a code and this page disagree, the code is right and this page is behind until it is read again.