Who owns the stump from a city tree, and who pays to grind it?

Published April 18, 2026 by the StumpCostCalc crew

In March 2024 my father-in-law called me with what he thought was a simple question. A city forestry crew had taken down a diseased ash tree in front of his house the previous October, leaving a 24-inch stump between his sidewalk and the curb. Six months later, nothing had happened. Was he allowed to hire someone to grind it? Who paid?

I did not know. So I called the city forester in his town, which turned into a rabbit hole of right-of-way rules, municipal schedules, and what is a surprisingly consistent set of answers across most U.S. cities. Here is what I learned.

Where the property line actually is

In most American residential subdivisions built after 1940, the city owns a strip of land called the "public right-of-way" that runs from the edge of the street to somewhere between 8 and 15 feet inside your front yard. The sidewalk, if there is one, sits on this right-of-way. The strip between the sidewalk and the curb (often called the "tree lawn," "park strip," "devil strip," or "boulevard" depending on your region) is on the right-of-way. So is a narrow strip on the house-side of the sidewalk.

Any tree planted on the right-of-way is, in the vast majority of municipalities, owned by the city. You can water it, rake its leaves, enjoy its shade, but you do not own the tree. You cannot prune it beyond the city's published residential-pruning allowance, and you absolutely cannot cut it down or grind its stump without a permit.

Pro tip: your plat map, available from the county recorder's office for $5 to $20 or often free online, shows the right-of-way boundary for your lot. Most homeowners are surprised by how wide it is.

What happens when a city tree dies

The standard municipal process across dozens of cities I have researched (Indianapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Kansas City, Dallas, Austin, Denver, Portland, Seattle, and a few smaller towns):

1. Resident reports a dead or hazardous tree on the right-of-way through the city's 311 line or online portal
2. Municipal forester inspects within 2 to 8 weeks
3. Tree is flagged for removal if genuinely hazardous or dead
4. City crew or contracted service takes the tree down, leaves a stump 4 to 24 inches tall
5. Stump goes on a separate grinding schedule, typically 6 to 18 months behind removal
6. Stump is eventually ground by city crew or contractor, chips raked in place, spot reseeded by the city

The 6 to 18 month lag between removal and grinding is not a bug. It is a feature of how municipalities budget. Removal is done on emergency safety schedule. Grinding is done on a calendar schedule with whatever chunks of the forestry crew's time are available between emergency responses. In a storm year like 2024 following the 2023 derecho, some cities were 24 months behind on stump grinding.

Can you hire someone to grind a city stump yourself?

Generally, no. Most municipal codes explicitly prohibit private contractors from working on right-of-way trees or stumps without a city permit. The rationale: liability insurance requirements, utility damage risk, and protecting the city's schedule from private cash-in-the-pocket cuts.

The exceptions, which are increasingly common in mid-sized cities:

• "Expedited resident-funded" program. Some cities (Indianapolis has one, Cleveland has one, some Dallas suburbs) let you pay a licensed contractor to grind a city stump if the city has flagged it but not scheduled it. You submit the contractor's insurance certificate, the city inspects and signs off, and the work can happen within 2 weeks instead of 18 months. Cost to you: the full grinding price, $200 to $500.
• "Adopt-a-tree" or similar. A handful of progressive municipalities allow residents to "adopt" right-of-way trees for pruning, planting, and stump care, with an expedited permit process.
• Hazardous exception. If the stump is a clear and immediate hazard (blocking pedestrian access, creating a trip-and-fall liability that the city will not correct), you can sometimes get emergency authorization to hire it out.

Call your city's forestry department, ask specifically about "resident-funded expedited stump grinding," and get the answer in writing.

The father-in-law resolution

For my father-in-law, suburban Indiana, the city forester told me:

1. The 24-inch ash stump was on their grinding schedule, probably 12 to 18 months out from the October removal
2. Yes, residents could hire a licensed tree service to do it sooner, with a permit and a $25 application fee
3. The permit required proof of $1 million general liability insurance and $100,000 workers comp
4. 811 utility locate was still required by federal law

He called Dale (the local crew I trust), got the COI emailed to the city the same afternoon, paid his $25 permit fee, and had the stump ground eight days later for $275 out of pocket. He waited 20 months from tree removal to having a usable tree lawn, but only because he decided to expedite. If he had stayed on the city schedule, he would have been waiting into summer 2025.

What you cannot do, even with permission

Even when the city lets you expedite a right-of-way stump grind, there are things you still cannot do:

• Remove additional roots from the right-of-way (root chasing on city land)
• Re-grade the tree lawn without a separate grading permit
• Plant a replacement tree of your choice; replacement must be on the city's approved species list and on the city's schedule
• Keep the wood chips if the city has a chip-ownership clause (rare, but Chicago has one)

If the city refuses to remove or grind the tree at all

Rare, but happens with healthy-but-problematic trees (invasive roots into your sewer line, excessive shade over solar panels). Your options:

• Petition the neighborhood, get 10+ signatures, escalate to the city council rep
• File a formal complaint with the city's ombudsman or 311 escalation process
• In extreme cases, sue for right-of-way nuisance. Rarely worth the legal fees unless actual property damage is occurring

Most cases resolve at the first level. A polite, persistent, documented request to the city forester gets answered within a month.

When the tree is half on your lot and half on the right-of-way

The gray zone. The trunk may be on your property, the drip line and some roots on the right-of-way. Ownership is determined by where the trunk meets the ground. If the trunk is fully on your lot, the tree and the stump are yours, do what you want (within local tree-protection ordinances). If the trunk is partly on the right-of-way, call the forester. Do not guess.

For stumps specifically, the rule is: whoever owned the tree owns the stump and is responsible for grinding it. Title follows the root ball.

How the calculator handles city stumps

It does not. The StumpCostCalc formula is built for private-property grinding. If you are expediting a city stump through a resident-funded permit, the grinding cost itself is the same (diameter, species, access, all apply normally). Add $25 to $50 for the permit fee depending on your city. Subtract zero because the contractor you hire will price it the same as any private job.

The main difference: the 18-month city wait is free. The 8-day expedited path costs you a few hundred bucks. Choose based on how much you care about the view from your porch.

Related: the complete guide, the full FAQ, storm-damage emergency grinding.