The 2024 Tree Ordinance Rewrite That Now Sets the Pace of Every Los Altos Rebuild

A buyer closes on a Los Altos lot with a dated ranch house, a permit set from an architect, and a demolition contractor on standby. The assumption is simple: close escrow, pull the demo permit, start grading, and the building department is the only office standing between purchase and construction. In Los Altos right now, that assumption skips a step. Before the building permit gets touched, the trees already growing on that lot decide how fast anything else can move, and in 2024 the city redrew the line for which trees count.

The same is true on the seller side. A listing that leans on "teardown value" or "SB9 potential" is making a promise about what the lot can become. Whether that promise holds up often comes down to what is already standing in the yard, not what the zoning code allows on paper.

The threshold that moved in 2024

Before 2024, a tree in Los Altos needed a trunk of 15 inches in diameter before it counted as protected and required a permit to remove. The city's rewrite of Chapter 11.08 of the municipal code dropped that threshold to 12 inches for most species, and to 10 inches for native trees such as oaks and California buckeye. The stated purpose of the chapter, in the city's own language, is "to protect and promote the growth of a healthy and sustainable tree canopy in Los Altos."

Alongside the lower threshold, the city raised its removal permit fee from $75 to $300 and added a new $1,200 in-lieu fee for any approved removal that isn't replaced with a new planting. Dead, diseased, or genuinely hazardous trees are excluded from the permit requirement, so a rotting stump isn't the concern here. A healthy sixty-year-old oak in the side yard is.

Why a tree planted in the 1970s clears the bar today

A three-inch drop in threshold sounds like a rounding error until you walk an established Los Altos lot. Many yards on the city's older streets were planted in the 1960s and 1970s, when the current owners or their parents first moved in. Trees that were saplings then have had fifty years to grow past both the old 15-inch line and the new 12-inch and 10-inch lines. A lot that looked tree-light under the pre-2024 rule can have several protected trees under the current one, and the owner may not know it until an arborist walks the property with a tape measure.

The permit sequence that follows is its own process, running on its own clock:

1. An arborist inspects the tree and prepares a report documenting its condition and the reason for removal.
2. The property owner files a tree removal permit application with the city, including that report.
3. The city targets 30 days to process a complete application.
4. If the tree qualifies as a heritage tree, the city adds a 10-day public notice period before the permit becomes final.

None of that overlaps neatly with a demolition and grading schedule. It runs in parallel at best, and it can stall the start of grading entirely if a tree the framing plan assumed would come out turns out to need mitigation, a redesigned footprint, or root-zone protection instead. Unauthorized removal carries real exposure too, with fines that start at $5,000 per tree.

A buyer who treats "close, demo, build" as one continuous line is going to be surprised by how many separate approvals sit inside that first word.

The SB9 wrinkle nobody prices into the pitch

SB9, the state law that lets a qualifying single-family lot be developed with two units or split into two parcels, comes up often in Los Altos listing language as upside. As of an April 2024 city planning report, Los Altos had received eighteen SB9 applications since the law took effect. The city's tree ordinance makes no exception for those projects. Chapter 11.08 applies to every owner of real property in the city, and that includes anyone pursuing a two-unit development or an urban lot split under SB9.

In practice, that means the same 12-inch and 10-inch thresholds that govern an ordinary remodel also determine whether a split lot actually produces two workable building envelopes. A parcel that reads as an easy division on a zoning map can have its buildable area shrink once setbacks, access, and protected root zones are drawn in around existing trees. The eligibility question and the tree question are separate, and only one of them shows up on the state law's checklist.

A seller marketing a long-held property with SB9 or teardown language, and a buyer writing an offer based on that language, both benefit from a parcel-specific read rather than a general one. What's actually growing on the lot changes the math before a single foundation is poured.

A pre-listing sequence that protects your price

For sellers, the fix is mostly about sequencing:

• Get a certified arborist onto the property before the listing goes live, not after an offer is in hand.
• Ask specifically which trees clear the 12-inch or 10-inch threshold, and whether any could qualify for additional heritage consideration.
• If the listing will reference teardown value or lot-split potential, have that arborist report ready to hand to serious buyers during their inspection period.
• Build the 30-day permit target, plus the 10-day notice period for heritage trees, into any timeline conversation with a buyer who wants a fast close and an immediate demo start.

For buyers, the same work happens during due diligence rather than after close. A certified arborist walking the lot during the inspection period, not after the deed records, is the difference between a clean close and a renegotiation once the tree count comes in higher than expected.

Frequently asked questions

Does a dead or hazardous tree still need a removal permit in Los Altos? No. The city's ordinance specifically excludes trees that are dead, diseased beyond recovery, or deemed hazardous from the permit requirement.

How long should I budget for a tree removal permit? Budget for the arborist report as an earlier, separate step, then the city's 30-day target for a complete application, plus an additional 10-day public notice period if the tree in question qualifies as a heritage tree.

Can I still pursue an SB9 lot split if the property has large trees? Possibly. Tree protection standards apply to SB9 projects the same way they apply to a standard remodel or rebuild, so the split still has to produce a workable building envelope on each resulting parcel once those standards are factored in. That's a parcel-specific question, not a citywide yes.

Whether you're pricing a long-held Los Altos property for sale or evaluating a lot with rebuild plans, the trees already on it are doing more to shape your timeline and your numbers than the building permit will. If you want a read on what's actually growing on a specific property before you list it or write an offer on it, Julie Baumann can help you get the arborist and permitting sequence right from the start. Let's Connect.