What does the Unitary Plan protect?
Auckland works in two layers: a list of named trees, and rules that depend on where a tree grows.
The list is Schedule 10, the Notable Trees Schedule, behind chapter D13, the Notable Trees Overlay. The plan calls these among the most significant trees in Auckland. Protection covers the tree, any group it belongs to, and its protected root zone (the ground its roots rely on).
Removing a notable tree is a discretionary activity: it needs a resource consent, and council can decline it. Digging in the root zone needs consent too, apart from a narrow allowance for trenchless work deeper than 1m under an arborist's direction.
Which trees are caught by where they grow?
- Within 10m of an urban stream, or within 20m of a natural wetland or in the bed of a river, stream or lake.
- Within 20m of mean high water springs in most urban zones: any native tree over 3m tall, or more than 25m2 of continuous vegetation. The same applies on a cliff top steeper than 1 in 3 within 150m of mean high water springs.
- Trunk in an open space zone: removing a tree over 4m tall or over 400mm in girth (the distance around the trunk). Council's Tree Asset Manager or the landowner must agree as well.
- Trunk in a road: the same 4m and 400mm thresholds, plus Auckland Transport's approval.
- Overlays such as Significant Ecological Areas carry their own vegetation rules.
How do I check an Auckland address?
Open the Unitary Plan map viewer
The Unitary Plan website links to it. Search the address and look for the notable tree symbol, which marks a listed tree, trees or group.
Find the entry in Schedule 10
It runs by district, then by street. Each entry gives the species, how many trees, the address and the legal description.
Look at the road reserve out front
Some entries are street trees, listed by the road reserve outside a particular number.
Then think about location
Note whether the tree is near a stream, wetland or the coast, or in a park, road or Significant Ecological Area. Those rules apply listed or not.
What goes into a notable tree consent?
Council's assessment looks at the alternatives you considered, the values the tree was listed for, any risk to people or property, the mitigation offered, and whether the work is best arboricultural practice.
D13 sets no special information list for this overlay, but its criteria include a tree works plan covering the effects, the methods and the arboricultural practice. That's an arborist's document. Council can also consider whether a qualified arborist should supervise the job.
Trimming, dead wood and coming off the list
Some notable tree work is listed as permitted, inside tight limits. Trimming can't cut a branch over 50mm across, can't take more than 10 per cent of the live growth in a calendar year, and has to keep the tree's natural shape.
Dead wood removal is listed as permitted when a qualified arborist does it. Done by anyone else, it's a controlled activity, which needs a consent.
A notable tree only comes off Schedule 10 automatically after it's removed through a consent or emergency works, council has sighted the approval, and the owners have had written notice.
Auckland Council tree rules and resource consents: what to do next
We'd open the map viewer and Schedule 10 before booking anyone, and check the road reserve as well as the section. If the tree is listed, or sits near water, on the coast or in a park, we'd have an arborist write the tree works plan first and lodge the consent on the back of it. Nothing gets cut until the decision is in writing.
Want an arborist to look at it?
Tell us the job and your postcode, and a local arborist calls you to talk it through.