Around town
Tree Rules Before You Cut: Hilton Head, Beaufort County and Bluffton
Live oaks get real legal protection here. What the rules say about taking a tree down on your own lot, and who to ask first.
Is there anything more Lowcountry than a live oak older than the house beneath it? Its limbs reach across the driveway, the Spanish moss hangs low, and every hurricane season it gives you something to think about.
Those trees are a large part of why people move here, and the towns and the county protect them accordingly. The rules aren’t the same everywhere, so before you call a tree service, find out whose jurisdiction you’re in.
Hilton Head Island
The Town is clearer about this than most. On a single-family lot with no recorded Town buffers, you generally don’t need a Natural Resource permit to take down a tree. (Town of Hilton Head Island)
There are exceptions worth knowing:
- In Folly Field, Forest Beach and Holiday Homes, single-family lots within the overlay district buffers need a permit before trees come down.
- So do trees on the beach side of an oceanfront lot, in wetland buffers and in recorded subdivision buffers.
- Specimen trees are a different matter. If a specimen tree is “not dead, dying, or diseased, it cannot be removed without a variance” from the Board of Zoning Appeals.
The Town also says to “always check with your POA prior to cutting any trees.” In Sea Pines or any of the planned communities, the property owners’ association may have stricter rules than the Town. The Town’s request form includes an emergency and hazard option and asks for each tree’s species, its diameter at chest height and the reason for removal. (Natural Resource request form)
Beaufort County, Outside the Towns
The county’s code, as quoted in a 2016 Planning Commission packet, treats some trees as specimens: dogwood, redbud and Southern magnolia at 4 inches in diameter or more, live oak, American holly, cedar and other listed species at 16 inches, and all other trees at 24 inches. Removing any tree over 8 inches, or any specimen tree, needed the director’s approval. (Beaufort County Planning Commission, June 2016) Those numbers are from 2016, so confirm them with county planning before you plan around them.
The county takes the rules seriously. Under that code, cutting trees before getting a permit could stop the county from issuing a development permit on the land for two years, unless the owner provides mitigation for the trees removed. And in 2017, County Council moved to raise the mitigation for illegally removed trees from 1.25 times to 2 times the caliper inches removed. (Beaufort County Council, July 2017) Caliper inches add up quickly on an old oak.
Bluffton
The Town of Bluffton’s development ordinance has its own tree removal permit section, along with sections on tree conservation and tree protection and replacement. (Bluffton Unified Development Ordinance, sections 3.22, 5.3 and 8.9) I couldn’t read the full current text, so I won’t tell you what it allows on a residential lot. Call the Town before you cut. A violation of the ordinance is a misdemeanor, and each day can count as a separate violation.
Dead, Dying or Dangerous
A dead pine leaning toward the bedroom is a different conversation from a healthy oak you’d like out of the way. Hilton Head’s form has an emergency option and its specimen rule exempts trees that are dead, dying or diseased. Ask your jurisdiction how they handle hazard trees and storm damage, and keep photos. An arborist’s letter helps.
The Tree Was Here First
A live oak can outlast the house, the owner and most of the paperwork. The rules exist because people who came before us decided the canopy was worth protecting, and most of us moved here because they did. Ask first. The tree will wait. The fine won’t.