Permit to Injure a Protected Tree for a Deck, Pool, or Driveway in Toronto

If your deck, pool or driveway in Toronto reaches into a protected tree’s protection zone, you need a permit to injure under Chapter 813 of the Municipal Code before work starts. The tree can stay. Work inside the zone triggers the permit.

The Tree Protection Zone Triggers the Permit

Each protected private tree has a Tree Protection Zone (TPZ) around it, calculated from the trunk diameter. Any construction activity that penetrates that zone requires a permit to injure, even if the tree won’t be removed and you plan for it to survive the project intact.

The bylaw covers any tree with a trunk diameter of 30 cm or more, measured at 1.4 metres above grade (breast height). If your excavation reaches the TPZ of a neighbour’s protected tree, your project needs the permit too.

Every Common Backyard Project Can Trip the Rule

Toronto’s “When to Apply” page lists construction activities that require a permit to injure. The relevant ones for residential backyard work:

• building, demolishing, or replacing decks, terraces, patios, and raised gardens
• installing or replacing driveways, parking pads, sidewalks, and walkways
• pool installation
• retaining walls and sheds
• any other permanent or temporary structure

What counts is whether the footprint, the excavation, the equipment access or the staging area crosses into a TPZ. A floating deck on footings can require an injury permit. So can a gravel driveway. The structure doesn’t need to touch the trunk. The bylaw’s exact language is: “If any construction work on site, including access or storage, will impact a TPZ, you need to apply for a permit.”

How to Calculate the TPZ for Your Tree

To measure trunk diameter (DBH): wrap a flexible tape around the trunk at 1.4 metres above the ground, then divide the circumference by 3.14. Our DBH measuring guide covers the multi-stem case and other edge cases this shortcut doesn’t handle.

Toronto’s TPZ table for private property trees:

A 45 cm tree has a minimum 3.0 m TPZ radius, and Urban Forestry can require a larger zone for site conditions. A 75 cm maple has a minimum 4.8 m radius. On a standard Toronto lot, that can extend well into a rear yard or toward a proposed pool excavation. For trees over 100 cm, the math is proportional: a 110 cm trunk has a minimum TPZ of 6.6 m.

Any city-owned tree in the boulevard or front yard strip is protected at any size. No 30 cm threshold applies. If you’re not sure whether a tree near your curb belongs to the city, call 311 before you plan access routes or material staging near it.

What the Bylaw Counts as Injury

Any of these inside the protected zone needs the permit, even the temporary stuff:

• excavating, digging, trenching, tunneling, scraping, or flattening soil within the TPZ
• changing the surface level or dumping fill inside the zone
• cutting, breaking, tearing, crushing, or exposing the tree’s roots
• storing materials, equipment, soil, or debris in the TPZ
• driving vehicles or heavy equipment over the root zone
• applying substances near the tree, including concrete sluice, gas, oil, paint, or pool water and backwash
• excessive canopy removal or improper pruning

That last item catches pool installations where a contractor needs to trim branches for equipment access. The pruning requires authorization under the same permit. The tree doesn’t have to die for an injury to be prohibited.

What the Permit Application Requires

The application form is called “Application to Injure or Remove Trees” (form 41-0064). Construction injury applications use the same form as removal applications, with different supporting documents.

For a construction injury application, you need:

• application fee
• arborist report covering the tree’s species, size, location, condition, structural integrity, and health, plus details of the proposed work and proposed protection measures
• tree protection plan, a separate document prepared by or in consultation with an arborist, showing protection details plotted to scale with minimum distances and hoarding locations labeled
• site plan to scale showing all trees 30 cm or larger on your property and on adjacent properties within 6 metres, numbered to match the arborist report, with TPZs plotted and minimum distances labeled
• elevations showing front, side, and rear views of the proposed construction, including the depth and nature of any excavation for footings, supporting piers, or basements
• photos

The arborist report and the tree protection plan are not self-prepared. The city requires them from a certified arborist, and that is the piece most homeowners hand off.

Toronto may also ask for a first floor plan, basement plan and construction details when construction, a basement or foundation, or a grade change falls inside or near a protected tree’s protection zone.

Applications are reviewed by Tree Protection and Plan Review (TPPR) district offices. Apply early. Submit the application before you lock in contractor dates or book the excavation, because work cannot start until the permit issues, and the permit waits for approved hoarding.

Approval comes before the permit. Once Urban Forestry confirms in writing that it supports the application, the owner signs an Undertaking and Release (a written commitment to follow every permit condition and protect the tree) in front of a witness, and the contractor installs the tree protection hoarding per the approved plan. Staff issue the permit once they have the signed form and have approved photos of the hoarding. Post the permit where it is visible from the street at least one day before work starts, and keep it up until the work is done. Tree protection fencing must stay in place through the entire project. If your permit includes a replanting condition and on-site planting isn’t feasible, cash-in-lieu runs $583 per tree.

The Fee, and What Skipping the Permit Costs

For construction work that affects a private tree, the application fee is $436.39 per tree (2026 fee schedule). The fee is $913.58 per tree for a boundary tree, whose trunk grows on the property line, or a neighbour tree affected by the proposed work. Roots or canopy extending across the line can bring a neighbour tree into the application, but do not make it a boundary tree. These fees are non-refundable.

The contravention side is a different scale. Work that injures a protected tree without a permit carries a minimum fine of $500 per tree and a maximum of $100,000 per tree. Where the city can show financial benefit from the unauthorized activity, an additional special fine of $100,000 applies. A contravention inspection fee of $304.51 to $913.58 per tree (2026) is added on top and goes to your property tax roll if unpaid within 90 days of the Order to Comply.

Starting September 1, 2026, a healthy private tree over 61 cm DBH can be designated a Distinctive Tree. Its status becomes a mandatory review criterion, and the city can refuse a permit to injure it. Plan a project near a tree that size before you apply.

Permit-to-Injure Reports for Toronto Projects

Our team prepares construction arborist reports for Toronto permit-to-injure applications, including both the arborist report and the tree protection plan the city requires. We review each project before the site visit so you know what the application covers and whether the footprint needs to change.

If your project is a pool, see our pool permit arborist reports page for how Toronto and other GTA cities treat pool excavation and equipment access differently from other construction, plus a desktop feasibility check for the quoting stage.

Contact us with your site address and the nature of your project.