Do you need a permit to remove a tree in Pender County?
Written by Mike Housand · Last checked November 2026
It depends which side of a town line your mailbox sits on, and that is not me dodging the question — it is the answer. There is no statewide tree-removal permit in North Carolina; the rules are written by counties and towns, so two houses a mile apart on US-17 can be under completely different ones. Below is what I could verify from official sources, what I could not, and the number to call either way.
First: work out whose rules you are under
A Hampstead address is unincorporated. There is no Hampstead town hall — we are Pender County, and the county's rules are the ones that apply. If your address is inside an incorporated town — Surf City, Topsail Beach, Holly Ridge, Burgaw, Wilmington, Jacksonville — that town has its own code on top of the county's, and the town is who you ask. I work in all of them, and the rules are not the same in any two.
Pender County, and Hampstead with it
The county's development rules live in its Unified Development Ordinance, administered by Pender County Planning & Community Development at 805 S Walker Street in Burgaw, 910-259-1202.
Here is where I stop short. The county tree provisions I could find are written around development — site plans, subdivisions, significant tree surveys, clearing and grading. I could not verify from the ordinance text whether anything reaches a homeowner taking one tree out of an existing yard, so I will not tell you there is a permit and I will not tell you there isn't. Two things worth asking while you have them: whether your lot sits in any overlay or protected classification, and whether your tree could count as significant. Those are the two that catch people.
Surf City: there is a permit, and there is a tree survey
Surf City is the town in my service area where I can point at its own words. Its published planning guidance says that a Zoning Permit is required with a tree survey showing the locations of current trees and the diameter of each tree the ordinance protects. The town also has a Coastal Forest Overlay District, and lots in it carry their own requirements. The tree preservation ordinance itself is § 7.3 of the Surf City code.
What I will not do is paraphrase the thresholds — exempt lot sizes, which species and diameters count, the replacement ratios. Those are the details that change, and a wrong number from me could cost you a replanting bill. Read § 7.3, or call 910-328-4131, before anything comes down.
Topsail Beach: I could not confirm it either way
Topsail Beach is its own town with its own code, and I could not confirm from an official source whether that code regulates tree removal. So here is the number instead of a guess: Town Hall, 820 S. Anderson Blvd, 910-328-5841. The town's ordinance index is where to start if you would rather read it yourself. On a barrier island I would make the call regardless, because dune and vegetation rules are a separate thing again.
The two rules that apply everywhere
More than an acre disturbed means an erosion plan
The statewide one, and worth knowing before you clear land rather than after. North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality puts it plainly: if more than one acre of land on a tract is to be disturbed, an erosion and sediment control plan is required. That comes out of the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973. One pine out of a back yard is nowhere near it; clearing a lot can be. Lot clearing is work I do, priced by the job, and permitting is part of that conversation rather than a surprise halfway through.
Call 811 before anybody digs
NC811 asks for three working days' notice before you dig, on 811 or 1-800-632-4949. Grinding a stump is digging, and the yards round here are full of shallow irrigation, invisible-fence wire, cable and the odd water line nobody wrote down. That call is mine to make on my jobs. If you know where something is buried, tell me anyway.
Your HOA is not a permit, and a permit is not your HOA
These get muddled constantly. An HOA's architectural rules are a contract you agreed to when you bought the house; an ordinance is the law where the house sits. Satisfying one says nothing about the other, and plenty of neighborhoods here have covenants stricter than anything the county asks for. Read yours, and make the county call as well.
A dead or dangerous tree is the same phone call
I am not going to invent a hazard exemption — it is the same call, just a quicker one. If the tree is on the house or has moved since the storm, deal with the danger first: 24/7 emergency tree service is for that, and my guide to a leaning tree tells you which one you have.
Where these rules come from
Every rule on this page came out of one of these six, all checked in November 2026. Nothing here is from memory.
- Pender County Planning & Community Development — 805 S Walker Street, Burgaw · 910-259-1202.
- Town of Surf City — planning FAQ — The town's own words: "A Zoning Permit is required with a Tree Survey indicating locations of current trees and diameters of each tree protected by the ordinance." Town phone 910-328-4131.
- Surf City Code of Ordinances § 7.3, Tree preservation — The ordinance itself. Read it rather than anybody's summary, mine included.
- Town of Topsail Beach — ordinances — The code index. Nothing in it confirmed a tree ordinance either way. Town Hall, 820 S. Anderson Blvd · 910-328-5841.
- NC DEQ — Erosion and Sediment Control laws and rules — "If more than one acre of land on a tract is to be disturbed, an erosion and sediment control plan is required." Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973.
- NC811 — "Contact 811 or 1-800-632-4949 three working days before you plan on digging."
I take trees down for a living. I don't work for the county and this isn't legal advice — ordinances change, so confirm anything here before you rely on it.
Questions I get asked
- Hampstead is unincorporated, so there is no town hall here to ask — the rules are Pender County's, and they live in the county's Unified Development Ordinance. I could not verify a blanket county permit for a homeowner taking one tree out of an existing yard, and I am not going to tell you there isn't one. One call settles it: Pender County Planning & Community Development, 910-259-1202.
- Very different, and there is one statewide rule worth knowing: North Carolina requires an erosion and sediment control plan when more than one acre of land on a tract is to be disturbed, under the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act. Lot clearing is something I do, priced by the job, and the permitting is part of that conversation.
- I do, and it is not optional. NC811 wants three working days' notice before digging, on 811 or 1-800-632-4949, and grinding a stump is digging. There is shallow irrigation, invisible-fence wire and cable in a lot of these yards. If you know where something is buried, tell me anyway — your memory beats a paint mark.
- I will tell you straight what I think applies and work to whatever the county or the town says, but the property is yours and the permission has to come from you. What I will not do is guess at a rule to get a job moving.
Call me and we will work out who needs asking
Tell me the address and what the tree is, and I will say straight what I think applies and who I would ring. Then a free estimate on the removal and on grinding the stump. Nobody starts a saw until the permission side is clear.