Reminder to Trim Branches Extending Over Streets & Sidewalks

Pedestrian & vehicle safety depend on unobstructed roadways. Property owners are reminded of their responsibility to ensure that branches are trimmed as designated by ordinance and shown on the attached diagram. Overhanging limbs must be 14 feet or more above the street and 7 or more feet above the sidewalk.

Additional requirements are in place in residential right-of-ways and apply to the visibility triangle that extends 30 feet in each direction of the intersection. A clearance of 10 feet or more above the street grade is required for any overhanging tree limbs within the visibility triangle; that area is also to be free of any shrubs, vegetation or other objects taller than 2-and-a-half feet in height.

City ordinance states the following: Clearance (a) All trees and shrubs overhanging within less than seven (7) feet in height from any sidewalk or boulevard or fourteen (14) feet in height from the traveled portion or parking area of any street or road right-of-way, within the City shall be trimmed in such a manner so as to allow seven (7) feet clearance over sidewalks or boulevards and fourteen (14) feet clearance over all streets. (b) All trees and shrubs shall have the branches trimmed so that such branches will not block or otherwise obstruct the view within the traffic visibility triangle as established in the zoning ordinance of the City of Freeman.

Freeman’s zoning ordinances specify the following: No obstructions, between the heights of two and one-half (2-1/2) and ten (10) feet above the average curb grades, or the street or highway grades at the centerline shall be established or placed in the area defined herein as the “Traffic Visibility Triangle”.

Further details regarding vegetation & trees are defined by Ordinances 4.02 and 10.02 in the “Government” section of this website.