This article deals exclusively with the Vienna Tree Protection Act. Different regulations apply in other Austrian federal states and German municipalities. The following notes do not constitute a tree diagnosis, felling instructions or confirmation of any specific removal.
The protection does not end at the boundary of the private garden
Section 1 protects the designated trees in Vienna regardless of whether they stand on public or private land. Included are deciduous and coniferous trees with a trunk circumference of at least 40 centimetres, measured at one metre height from the start of the root branching, including their above- and below-ground plant habitat. [BEREICH]
Paragraph 2 contains exceptions. These include, among others, forests under forestry law and a specifically designated catalogue of fruit trees. The precision of the latter is particularly important: the bird cherry is expressly excluded from the fruit-tree exception named there. “Bears fruit” is therefore not a sufficient private classification rule. [BEREICH]
Have a questionable tree species and the applicable protection clarified by a specialist. The name in an old garden plan or a guess during the inspection does not decide this question.
A building intention is not yet permission to remove a tree
For removal, Section 4 provides for an official permit and concrete prerequisites. The provision also contains a construction-related offence with further conditions; any conveniently more favourable spatial arrangement is not sufficient as a self-issued exception. Under paragraph 2, the permit must be limited to the absolutely necessary extent. [ENTFERNUNG]
From these rules it should not be inferred here that a building project must always yield to every tree, nor that any approved building possibility automatically entitles the desired felling. The concrete assessment needs the context between the existing trees and the project.
The design should really include the existing trees
Our editorial recommendation is to include relevant trees already in the early planning basis. Location, recognisable extent and professionally yet unresolved details should be shown separately and distinctly. This private overview is not an expert report. It primarily prevents a drawn free area from being unconsciously further planned as actually freely available.
In the hypothetical case, a household decides between two possible driveways. Variant A touches a tree; variant B changes the arrangement of the parking spaces. The planning should present both variants including the open tree question. The household should not already order the removal and then only discuss the smaller technical problem.
The balancing also requires the professional question of what effects an execution could have on the existing tree. The statutory protection covers more than the visible trunk. Where professional planning or official classification is lacking, no general harmless storage, excavation or work zone should therefore be inferred from this article.
Evidence and execution belong to the same project
Record which trees and which specific variant an enquiry or decision refers to. If the driveway or building mass changes, it must be checked whether the previous clarification still fits. A different plan is not made identical solely by keeping the same project name.
Further requirements such as replacement plantings or other applicable protective provisions will be clarified in the concrete procedure. No number of replacement trees or compensation fee is calculated here. The result is a reliable planning question: which variant can be implemented legally and technically with the actually decisive tree stock? Only afterwards does an assumed free area become a comprehensible building concept.