You mow the strip between your sidewalk and the curb. You rake its leaves, you shovel around it, and your deed almost certainly describes land that reaches out to the centerline of the street. So the tree standing in that strip is yours to prune, remove, or replace — right?
In Dublin, usually not. That strip is public right-of-way, the tree in it is a city asset, and the rules that govern it are different from the rules that govern the identical maple twenty feet behind it in your front yard. This is the single most common misunderstanding we run into on Dublin properties, and it is worth ten minutes of your time before you call anyone with a chainsaw.
What counts as a street tree in Dublin
Dublin’s Forestry Division draws the line by location, not by who cuts the grass. In the city’s own words: “City-owned trees are those trees growing within the public right-of-way. Most trees are in the area of land between the street and the sidewalk.”
That strip goes by several names — tree lawn, devil’s strip, verge, parkway, right-of-way planting strip. They all mean the same piece of ground, and in most of Dublin it is where the street trees live. Two things follow from that, and both surprise people:
- The right-of-way is usually wider than the pavement. It is a legal corridor that includes the street, the curb, the tree lawn, and often the sidewalk itself. Your maintenance responsibility for the grass does not make the corridor yours.
- Your property line and the right-of-way line are not the same line. A deed that technically runs to the street centerline still carries a public easement over the corridor. What matters for tree work is the right-of-way line, and it is generally several feet behind the curb.
The city prunes it — and asks you not to
This is the part homeowners are most often unaware they are paying for. Dublin Forestry states plainly: “The City of Dublin’s Forestry staff maintains and prunes all City-owned trees. We ask residents not to prune the trees located in the tree lawn.”
So the correct move when a street tree is rubbing your roofline, blocking a stop sign, or dropping deadwood on the sidewalk is not to hire a crew — it is to report it to Forestry and let the city do work it has already budgeted for. There is no reason to pay for a prune the city performs for free, and unauthorized cutting on a public tree is a problem you do not want.
That restraint is not bureaucratic fussiness. Dublin has been a Tree City USA community for 37 consecutive years and a Tree Cities of the World member for five, and the canopy along these streets is a managed public inventory rather than a collection of individual yard trees. It is also why Dublin’s rules are noticeably stricter than several neighboring suburbs’.
Where the line actually falls, job by job
Almost every real question comes down to which side of the right-of-way line the trunk is standing on. Here is how that plays out for the situations we get called about most:
| Situation | Tree in the tree lawn (city) | Tree in your yard (private) |
|---|---|---|
| Routine pruning | City Forestry does it; residents asked not to | Yours to schedule whenever you like |
| Removal | City decision, not a homeowner decision | Generally no permit on residential lots outside a no-disturb zone |
| Replacement planting | City-directed; species chosen from its inventory | Your choice, unless a permit attached a replacement condition |
| Storm limb on the ground | Report to Forestry; damage on your side is an insurance question | Yours to clear — and yours to claim |
| Roots lifting pavement | Report it; do not cut roots on a city tree | Options on the table, but root loss destabilizes the tree either way |
Note the second row, because it is the one that saves people money. Dublin’s permit requirement carves out an exception for trees on private residential property outside a no-disturb zone, and most yard removals fall inside it and owe nothing — but if a permit does apply, a replacement obligation usually comes with it, measured in caliper inches rather than in trees. The Dublin tree removal permit guide walks the whole decision.
Storms, emergencies, and the 48-hour rule
Storm nights do not wait for office hours, and Dublin’s code accounts for that: removal is allowed without a formal application when it is needed to prevent danger. The obligation that survives is reporting — whoever did the cutting has 48 hours to notify the Planning Director. The permit guide quotes that requirement in full.
Practically: make it safe, then report it. If the tree was in the right-of-way, tell Forestry too — the city tracks its own inventory and will handle the stump and any replanting. If the tree was yours and it landed on something of yours, that is where homeowners insurance and tree removal comes in. We cover the after-hours side of this on our emergency tree removal page, and storm-season prep is the cheaper version of the same conversation.
Roots, sidewalks, and driveways
Heaved slabs are the slow-motion version of this problem, and they are where homeowners most often act before they check. Cutting the major roots on one side of a mature street tree does two things at once: it removes a large share of the tree’s anchorage, and it damages public property. A tree root-pruned hard on the curb side is measurably more likely to fail toward the house.
Report the heaving instead. The standard municipal fixes — grinding the lip, shaving the slab, replacing the panel, or ramping over the root — all preserve the tree, and none of them cost you anything on a city tree. If the affected pavement is on your side of the line and the tree is yours too, you have more room to choose, but the biomechanics do not change: a proper risk assessment should come before any root cutting on a tree big enough to hit something.
Finding your right-of-way line without paying anyone
You do not need a survey to get a workable answer, and you should not guess:
- Check your closing paperwork. A plat or survey from your purchase shows the right-of-way directly, and most people already have one filed away.
- Pull the county parcel viewer. Franklin County and Delaware County both publish free auditor parcel maps showing your boundary against the street. Good enough to tell a tree lawn tree from a yard tree in most cases.
- Call City of Dublin Planning at 614.410.4600. This is the answer that actually settles it, and it is free. Ask about no-disturb zones on your parcel in the same call — the city does not publish a simple list, so a phone call is the only reliable way to know.
What we will and won’t touch
We work on the private side of the line. If the tree is in your yard, we will assess it, prune it, remove it if it needs to come out, and grind the stump. If the trunk is standing in the tree lawn, we will tell you so and point you at Forestry rather than take the job — a crew that offers to quietly remove a city street tree for you is telling you something important about how it operates, which is one of the checks in our guide on how to choose a tree service in Dublin.
Not sure which side of the line your tree is on? That is a normal question and it is the first thing we check on site. Dublin Tree Pros will look at the tree, tell you honestly whether it is yours to decide about, and quote only the work that actually is. Request a free estimate.
Official City of Dublin Resources
This guide summarizes the City of Dublin’s published forestry and tree-preservation material and is provided for general information, not legal advice. Right-of-way widths vary street by street and subdivision by subdivision, so nothing here establishes where the line falls on your specific lot — only the county plat or the city can do that. Ordinances change; confirm your situation with the City of Dublin before removing or cutting into any tree near the street. Last reviewed against city sources: August 2026.