The following memo was prepared by our Greenburgh CAC and contains useful information about Con Ed's plans to protect their equipment, prevent power outages and what rights the utility company has if they desire to trim a tree on private property.
TOWN OF GREENBURGH
Tree Trimming Notice
June 7, 2020
The Town has learned that Con Edison plans to perform tree maintenance in Unincorporated Greenburgh. Tree maintenance is required to protect equipment and prevent power outages.
Con Edison has rights-of-way to run its distribution lines along streets and sidewalks in Town. Con Ed follows International Society of Arboriculture pruning guidelines. Trees are trimmed to create minimum distance between surrounding trees and distribution wires. These distances reflect best practices in the Northeast: 10 feet underneath the line, 10 feet on each side of the line and 15 feet above the line.
If a distribution line runs from the street to a house, it is likely on a right-of-way granted to the utility by the current or former home owner. While there are no generally accepted standards for tree trimming on these rights-of-way, the Town believes it is reasonable for the same standards as described above to apply.
Con Edison may wish to trim trees on private property. In order to do that, they need the owner’s permission, unless the tree has fallen on a distribution line, or in its opinion, it is in imminent danger of doing so.
See Greenburgh Town Code, Chapter 260A – Tree Cutting, Topping and Removal on Distribution Lines Rights-of-Way for further information.
If any questions or difficulties arise, please contact our forestry officer Aaron Schmidt at aschmidt@greenburghny.com.