Tree Service Frontenac MO
Frontenac’s R-1 district requires one-acre lots, and a healthy oak two feet across is a protected grand tree. Taking one down needs a city permit that the Architectural Review Board reviews.
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How Big Are Frontenac Lots, and What Does That Mean for a Mature Tree?
An R-1 lot is at least one acre, with a 60-foot front yard, 15-foot side yards, a 50-foot rear yard and 60% green space. The other residential district, R-2, allows 7,500-square-foot lots 75 feet wide. The city’s 2050 comprehensive plan describes three square miles of mostly large homes in a rolling, wooded landscape, with West End Park the exception as a traditional neighborhood. It names subdivisions including Countryside, Frontenac Woods, Devondale and Conway Woods, and campuses such as Villa Duchesne and St. Joseph’s Academy.
The plan calls the canopy extensive and mature, and notes that older houses are being heavily renovated or torn down for larger ones. Chapter 425 sets a critical root zone of 1.25 feet of radius for every inch of trunk diameter, so a 24-inch oak has a protected circle 60 feet across. No equipment may run inside the fenced zone during construction.
A tree that has outgrown its spot beside the house is usually climbed and lowered in sections, or lifted out by crane when there is no room to rig. Our large tree removal page explains the choice. A sound tree with a weak fork over the roof may suit cabling and bracing instead.
Which Frontenac Trees Does the Code Protect, and Which Fail First?
The code sorts them. Its grand tree definition protects hardwoods at 24 inches and leaves out ten kinds whatever their size.
Oaks and hickories
The city’s recommended list includes white, bur, swamp white, Shumard and pin oak. Pin oak is the one that struggles: the Missouri Department of Conservation says alkaline soils give it iron chlorosis and yellowish leaves. See our pin oak chlorosis guide.
Silver maple, sweet gum, cottonwood
Never grand trees under Chapter 425, along with box elder, mulberry, poplar and willow. The Department says silver maple has soft wood and easily loses limbs in strong winds and ice storms. Trimming and pruning takes weight off long limbs.
Green ash
Also excluded. Emerald ash borer was widespread in Missouri by 2020, the Department reports. A dead ash near a house or drive is a job for dangerous tree removal.
Callery pear and bamboo
Section 250.120 makes it unlawful to plant them, or to replace a dead one with the same. The list also covers bush honeysuckle and tree-of-heaven.
Which Frontenac Trees Need a Removal Permit?
Three cases under Section 425.030: a healthy, living grand tree; any tree of three-inch caliper or more inside a woodland of a quarter acre or more; and 25% or more of the trees on a lot. Successive applications are counted together. That is how Chapter 425 reads in October 2026. Confirm with the Building Department at City Hall, 10555 Clayton Road, (314) 994-3200, before scheduling a removal.
- File the application with the Building Official: which trees go, why, and where replacements will be planted.
- The Architectural Review Board reviews it. It can refuse if removal would substantially increase stormwater on other lots, weaken a privacy buffer or fall in a stream buffer.
- Each grand tree is replaced on the lot with two canopy trees of two-inch caliper or two six-foot evergreens, backed by an escrow deposit. The permit stays posted at the property until the work is done.
Trees removed within 12 months before a demolition, grading or new-construction permit are treated as removed for that project. Our tree removal permit guide explains the general pattern elsewhere in the area.
Who Handles Trees Along Lindbergh, Clayton Road and Conway?
MoDOT on Lindbergh, the city on the other two. Frontenac says Clayton, Geyer, Spoede and Conway roads are city-owned, and Public Works maintains their right-of-way. Any work there needs a city permit: call (314) 994-0646. Lindbergh Boulevard and I-64 are maintained by the Missouri Department of Transportation, (888) 275-6636. Private residential streets are maintained by subdivision trustees.
Owners must keep 12 feet of clearance over a public roadway and eight feet over sidewalks under Section 250.020. Section 250.010 lets the electric utility trim trees overhanging streets to keep branches off its wires. The city lists Ameren for electric service, and Ameren says only qualified line clearance contractors may work within 10 feet of its higher-voltage lines.
Where Do Limbs and Storm Debris Go in Frontenac?
To the curb in small bundles, or away with the tree crew. Gateway Disposal collects yard waste weekly, set out before 7 a.m. Monday in paper bags or cans, with limbs tied in bundles. Bundles top out at four feet long, 24 inches across and 60 pounds. The city’s leaf vacuum, run by Hendel Lawncare from late October through December, passes by any pile with branches in it.
Storms make more than that. NOAA’s Storm Events Database records an EF0 tornado on May 19, 2022 that touched down just southwest of Frontenac and ran north for 1.32 miles, 50 yards wide, downing trees and snapping limbs. On June 30, 2023, winds took down trees, limbs and power lines here and in Ladue. Ameren storm crews leave cut wood for the owner, and Section 250.110 requires owners to clear fallen trees and limbs, creeks included.
Frontenac and neighbouring Huntleigh are both in Thompson Tree Care and Landscaping’s service area, with a 24/7 emergency line at (314) 712-3035.
Last Updated: October 2026
Grand Trees, Creeks and Licenses: Frontenac Answers
A hardwood such as an oak, hickory, sycamore or elm 24 inches or more in diameter at breast height, or a softwood such as a pine or spruce at 20 inches. It must be in good or fair condition. Chapter 425 leaves out ten kinds at any size, among them silver maple, sweet gum, green ash and cottonwood.
Section 425.030 exempts a tree that an ISA certified arborist has determined to be diseased or hazardous, and Section 250.110 makes it the owner’s duty to remove dead or dying trees. Get the determination in writing and confirm with the Building Department at (314) 994-3200 before work starts.
Yes. Section 425.090 says all contractors performing tree removal in Frontenac must be licensed through the city and able to show proof of that license while working. Ask any company for it before you sign. Thompson Tree Care and Landscaping provides a written estimate and proof of insurance on request.
Check with the Building Department first. Section 425.060 says a removal permit will not be issued if the removal would take place in a required stream buffer, and the zoning table sends lots beside certain streams to the stream buffer rules in Chapter 506.