A. Trees within the public right-of-way or on City property shall be pruned, damaging insects shall be controlled, disease shall be treated and the trees otherwise shall be maintained following the procedures and according to the standards of the City’s tree planting and maintenance policy. Trees within and without the public right-of-way shall be maintained so as not to obstruct the vision clearance area at intersections provided for in the Development Code, Ordinance 2050.

B. Trees within the public right-of-way shall be maintained so that no part of the tree occupies any portion of the area that is 14 feet or less above the surface of an arterial roadway as designated on the Comprehensive Plan, or 12 feet or less above the surface of any roadway not designated on the Comprehensive Plan as an arterial, or 8 feet or less above the surface of a sidewalk or bicycle or pedestrian path.

C. No tree within the public right-of-way or on City property shall be topped unless the tree interferes with overhead utility wires or street lights as determined by the owner of the utility or street lights, or unless topping is necessary to limit further damage to a tree already damaged by other causes as determined by the city manager.

D. A tree within the public right-of-way or on City property that presents an imminent risk of bodily injury or property damage may be removed on order of any public official having authority to enforce motor vehicle laws or fire or life safety codes at the location of the risk. As to emergency removal by any other person, it is an affirmative defense that a person removed or caused to be removed a tree within the right-of-way without obtaining a permit or direction to do so from an appropriate public official, because such removal was necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent public or private injury; and the threatened injury was of such gravity that, according to ordinary standards of intelligence and morality, the desirability and urgency of avoiding the injury clearly outweighed the desirability of protecting the public’s interest in the tree.

E. Except as provided by subsection D of this section, no person shall remove or destroy a tree within the public right-of-way without a permit issued by the City upon the person’s application, on a form prescribed by the City, and payment of the required fee. Such permits shall obligate the person to replace the removed tree with a species approved by the City and to plant and maintain same according to the tree planting and maintenance policy, unless the city manager upon request by the permittee determines it would not be in the public interest to do so. The City may require a person seeking a permit to remove or destroy a tree within the public right-of-way to give security for the cost of replacement and establishment.