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Pre-Quote Tree Screening Checklist for Toronto Pool Builders
A 10-minute screen to run before you sign a design deposit: does this lot have a tree or ravine problem that changes your price and your timeline.
Excavation Alone Can Trigger Ravine Review
Toronto's Municipal Code Chapter 658 regulates two separate activities on ravine and natural feature (RNFP) lands: injury or destruction of a tree, and grade alteration or fill placement. A pool's excavation and backfill fall squarely under the second branch. On a ravine-regulated lot, that means the dig itself can pull a project into review even if the pool footprint doesn't touch a single tree.
Most quoting conversations skip this because the client's focus is on the tree in the backyard, not the grading plan. If the lot is ravine-regulated, the grading plan needs its own review path regardless of what the tree inventory shows. Screen for ravine status before you screen for trees.
The Pre-Quote Screen
Walk the lot, or the survey, against these five items before pricing goes to the client.
- 1
Is the lot ravine or RNFP regulated?
Check the city's ravine mapping tool for the property. RNFP protects trees starting at 5 cm DBH, a far lower bar than the 30 cm threshold that applies under the private tree bylaw everywhere else in the city. A lot that reads as "no significant trees" under the private bylaw can still carry a full ravine tree inventory once RNFP applies.
- 2
Any tree 30 cm DBH or larger within 6 metres of the dig zone?
Measure from the edge of the excavation, not the pool shell. Include neighbour trees whose trunk sits on the other side of a fence: the private bylaw's review radius runs 6 metres from the work edge regardless of which property the trunk grows on. On ravine-regulated lots the same check runs to 12 metres from the disturbance limit.
- 3
Does a neighbour tree's protection zone reach the site, even past 6 metres?
A trunk beyond the 6-metre radius doesn't clear the project automatically. If that tree's protection zone extends onto the subject property and into the construction limits, it still needs to be addressed. Large trees on adjacent lots are the item builders miss most often, because the trunk itself never enters the picture.
- 4
Look up the Tree Protection Zone radius for the DBH you measured
Trunk diameter (DBH) TPZ radius, non-ravine TPZ radius, ravine lot Up to 10 cm 1.2 m 1.2 m 11 to 29 cm 1.8 m 3.6 m 30 to 40 cm 2.4 m 4.8 m 41 to 50 cm 3.0 m 6.0 m 51 to 60 cm 3.6 m 7.2 m 61 to 70 cm 4.2 m 8.4 m 71 to 80 cm 4.8 m 9.6 m 81 to 90 cm 5.4 m 10.8 m 91 to 100 cm 6.0 m 12.0 m Radius is measured from the trunk. Any part of the dig, the equipment access route, or the staging area that crosses the radius line puts that tree under review.
- 5
Ravine lot confirmed? Budget for two permit processes.
A ravine-regulated pool job runs the City's RNFP review and a Toronto and Region Conservation Authority permit under Ontario Regulation 41/24 side by side. TRCA's own guidance tells applicants to submit to the City's RNFP staff at the same time as the TRCA application for any tree work involved. TRCA does not publish a fixed numeric pool setback: it wants the setback from the top of slope to the pool and decking shown directly on a grading plan, along with erosion and sediment control.
Replacement Costs If a Tree Comes Out
If the screen turns up a healthy tree outside RNFP land that has to come out for the pool, Toronto requires three replacement trees per removal, or cash-in-lieu at $583 per tree at the 2026 rate where on-site planting doesn't fit. Put that figure in front of the client before anyone signs.
Ravine removals carry their own replacement schedule, and it isn't a flat multiple. Confirm the exact count with your arborist once ravine status and DBH are established rather than estimating it.
A Finding Adds Weeks to the Schedule
A tree or ravine finding adds weeks to a job: an arborist report, a tree protection plan, and on ravine lots a grading plan reviewed by two agencies. Price and schedule after the screen.
For the homeowner-facing explanation of how Toronto and other GTA cities treat pool permits near protected trees, see our pool permit arborist reports page. For the politics behind the proposed change to how pool water surface counts toward soft landscaping requirements, a proposal that was referred back to city staff in February 2026 and remains unresolved, see our post on the stalled hardscape proposal.
Outside Toronto the Numbers Change
This checklist is written to Toronto's bylaws, and its numbers stop at the city line. Mississauga protects private trees from 15 cm trunk diameter, Vaughan and Markham from 20 cm, so a tree that clears Toronto's 30 cm bar can still hold up a permit two municipalities over. Protection zone radii, replacement ratios, and cash-in-lieu rates are set city by city as well; the table and figures above are Toronto's alone.
The screen itself travels fine. For a lot outside Toronto, run the same five questions against that city's bylaw, or start from our pool permit arborist reports page, which covers how each municipality we serve treats pool projects.
Run the Screen Before the Deposit
The Pool Tree Feasibility Check is a desktop review for the quoting stage. We look at aerial canopy coverage, estimate tree sizes and species from imagery and records, and flag which trees are likely to trigger permit review under the lot's bylaw, all before your client commits to a design. It costs $199 flat and takes 48 hours. If the project moves ahead to a full arborist report, the fee is credited against it.
Order a Feasibility CheckRequest a quote
Tell us about your property and an ISA Certified Arborist will follow up with next steps and a firm quote.
- Free consultation, same-day response.
- Municipal-ready report delivered in 2 business days.
- Independent assessment. No tree-removal sales, no conflict of interest.
Serving Toronto, the GTA, and across Southern Ontario.
ISA Certified Arborist · ISA Member · ISA Ontario Member · ASCA Member