Birch, spruce and co. protected again from 1 March
Amendment to the Saxon Nature Conservation Act reinstates the city's tree protection statutes in their original version
Next Monday, 1 March, the amended Saxon Nature Conservation Act comes into force. This means that the City of Chemnitz's tree protection bylaws will once again be valid in their original form from 1994, and the exceptions that have since been made will no longer apply.
The municipal tree protection statutes were repealed to a large extent more than ten years ago by the "Act to Simplify State Environmental Law", which was incorporated into the Saxon Nature Conservation Act on 6 June 2013. Under this law, all conifers, fruit trees, poplars, birches, willows and dead trees were exempt from protection if they were located on properties with buildings. The remaining deciduous trees were only placed under protection with a trunk circumference of more than 100 centimetres at one metre trunk height.
On 3 February 2021, the amendment to this Saxon Nature Conservation Act was signed and now comes into force. This reverses the amendments passed in 2010. This means that all municipal tree protection statutes are now fully valid.
The changes at a glance
Protected according to § 1:
- all deciduous and coniferous trees with a trunk circumference of at least
50 centimetres - all slow-growing individual trees with a trunk circumference of at least
30 centimetres - all multi-stemmed trees with a total trunk circumference of more than
50 centimetres - all high-stemmed fruit trees with a trunk circumference of at least
90 centimetres
For all of the above categories, the circumference is measured at a height of one metre above the ground.
A distinction is no longer made between developed and undeveloped properties.
The processing period for applications is six weeks from receipt of the complete documents at the Green Space Office. Processing will continue to be free of charge.
If you have any queries regarding the applicable legal basis and the provisions of the tree protection statutes, please call the authorities on 115 or the secretariat of the Green Planning Department at the City of Chemnitz Green Spaces Office on 0371 488 6721.
The tree protection statutes of the City of Chemnitz (as amended in 1994) can be found at www.chemnitz.de/satzungen and in the current official gazette.