Website Help– Virginia Tree Ordinance Database

• Getting Started: Relevant Commonwealth legislation  Virginia is a Dillon Rule state.  Therefore, Virginia municipalities have limited power to regulate the activities of their citizens.  Familiarize yourself with these statutes from the Code of Virginia before you start crafting a tree ordinance for your community.
• Search our tree ordinance library Type a word or phrase in the box, press submit, and VTOD locates the words in its municipal ordinance database.  The search result provides excerpted text for each municipal ordinance in which the term appears.  The search result also identifies the source municipality and groups results by the ordinance type/section.  Try searching canopy cover and see what VTOD finds.
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  • A list of examples of common ordinance types and components  Click a link to see examples from select municipalities in Virginia.  The link provides excerpted text from municipal ordinances that address the particular component.  Try out Variances and Appeals to see how different municipalities handle this regulatory issue.
• Browse our tree ordinance library  Maybe you want to see the whole tree ordinance for our select municipalities.  If so, you can download them in either PDF or Word format.  With a bit of editing, you can quickly craft a draft ordinance for your community using one of the examples as a template.
• Dictionary of common tree ordinance terms  Select a term from the drop-down menu, press submit, and its definition appears below the menu.  Definitions have been excerpted from municipal ordinances, and the name of the source municipality is provided with the definition.  For some terms, definitions from multiple municipalities are provided.  Sometimes these definitions differ depending on the term’s context in the ordinance.  Take a look at critical root zone to see how municipalities differ in its measurement.