Lancaster PA State and City Tree Maintenance

Lancaster Gardens, Lancaster Homes, EPinkham Homes for SaleBeing a Good "City" Gardening Neighbor, part 3 - By Susan Ketterman

There are PA State Laws that would apply to trees encroaching on a neighbor's property. Both the PA Boundary Tree Law and the PA Tree Damage Law provide guidance on how to handle problems such as the height of natural fences created by a row of trees or bushes or overhanging branches. In PA, neighbors are allowed to trim tree limbs that come onto their property. The law clearly states that if the tree trunk is in one person's property, the other property owner has all the rightgs to cut the branches if they ar creating a nuisance.  You can cut the branches up to your property line without encroaching into your neighbor's property. They are not responsible for damages to the tree so long as the tree survives. According to the laws about trees overhanging property lines, a person is also responsible if the tree in question is interfering in the other person's enjoyments of his own property.

The City of Lancaster also has environmental programs that help everyone to "go green". The city trash hauler will collect bagged and bundled yard waste (leaves, garden residue, brush, shrubbery and branches up to six inches in diameter) on a monthly basis from April to October. Larger branches can be bundled adn tied with biodegradable string/twine. The city also provides a seasonal collection of leaves placed in yard waste bags from October to December. The bags (paper) are available at no charge at various city locations. You can also recycle your Christmas trees through a January two-week curbside pick-up program. The yard waste that is collected is sent to municipal compost site where it is ground up to make mulch. In 2011, the new yard waste bag collection program collected 68 tons of yard waste.

Lancaster City, Lancaster PA, City Garden

Excerpted from Town and Country Garden Club of Lancaster newsletter, April 2012


Posted by Elizabeth Pinkham on 06/15/2012
Tags: Lancaster City PA Lancaster PA real estate Lancaster, PA Lebanon PA homes