Edmonds Tree Code Disclosure Changes for Home Sales

If you are closing on a lot with mature trees in Edmonds this year, do not assume a clean title report means a clean tree file. Until October 2025, those two things were connected. The city required certain protected trees to be recorded against the property at the Snohomish County auditor's office, so a future buyer's title search would surface any tree obligations that came with the land. That requirement is gone now. The title can be clean and the tree obligations can still exist. You just will not find them the way you used to.

This matters more in Edmonds than almost anywhere else in South Snohomish County, because the city has spent the last five years building one of the region's most active tree codes, and that code is still being rewritten as you read this.

The paperwork trail that used to exist

Edmonds first adopted its tree-related regulations in 2021 under Ordinance 4227, aimed at retaining trees during development on private property. Part of that code required that when a tree was tied to a retention plan, a replacement obligation, or a permanent protection easement, the property owner had to record a notice on title with the Snohomish County auditor documenting that condition. The idea was straightforward: if a lot came with a legal obligation to keep or replace a tree, the next buyer should be able to find that out by pulling title, the same way they would find an easement or a covenant.

That mechanism ran for four years. Then the city removed it.

How one lawsuit exposed the mechanism

The clearest illustration of what the notice-on-title rule actually did in practice comes from a single vacant lot on Cedar Street. In 2022, Edmonds resident Nathan Rimmer submitted a building permit for a single-family home on the lot. A dogwood tree stood in the footprint of his plans. Under the 2021 code, removing it meant planting two replacement trees, dedicating a portion of the lot to their permanent protection, and recording that arrangement on his property title, an obligation that would have followed the home even after he sold it.

Rimmer argued the requirement was an unconstitutional taking and, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, sued the city in 2023. In January 2024, a Snohomish County Superior Court judge agreed and ordered the city to approve his permit.

The city did not simply lose and move on. In September 2025, City Attorney Jeff Taraday brought a package of what staff called largely procedural amendments to the Planning Board, including the removal of the notice-on-title requirement. Coverage of that meeting summarized the reasoning behind dropping it this way:

"The notice had created unanticipated problems and was not performing as intended."

By October 2025, that removal was final. When the Rimmer case reached an appellate panel in March 2026, the court dismissed it as moot: the city had already issued Rimmer's permit and had already rewritten the code that caused the dispute, so there was no live controversy left to rule on. The city avoided paying damages. Rimmer got his permit. And the recording requirement that would have flagged his tree obligation to a future buyer no longer exists for anyone closing today.

Before and after October 2025

That last row matters as much as the disclosure change. The same September 2025 amendment package that dropped the title notice also lengthened the maintenance bond on tree replacement work from two years to five, and removed the exemption that had let ordinary single-family homeowners skip bonding altogether. If you replace a protected tree on a typical house lot in Edmonds today, you are bonding that replacement for five years in a way an owner in 2022 would not have had to.

The other half of this: big trees are about to get more protected, not less

While the city was loosening the disclosure side of its tree code, it was simultaneously tightening the rules for its largest trees, and that story starts with a single redwood.

On March 31, 2025, a 100-foot redwood known locally as "Big Red" was removed near the entrance to the Boardwalk Condominiums parking area. Residents protested, but the removal permit had already been issued and could not be blocked. Three weeks later, the city council unanimously passed an interim ordinance defining a "landmark tree" as one 30 inches or more in diameter, measured 4.5 feet above the ground, and prohibiting its removal outside of hazard or nuisance exceptions.

That interim ordinance was only ever meant to be temporary. In April 2026, the council discussed extending it another six months, through October, but took no action at that meeting. Urban forest planner Deb Powers, rehired by the city in January 2026 specifically to finish this work, told the council the Planning Board and Tree Board needed more time to work through public comment generated by the Big Red controversy. Her current target, as of that April 2026 meeting, is to circulate a full draft by July and bring a comprehensive tree code update to council by October 2026.

In February 2026, the Edmonds Beacon reported that the council had already moved forward on a broader overhaul, so this is not a distant possibility. It is an active rewrite with a stated fall deadline, happening in the same twelve months as the disclosure rollback.

Put those two threads together and you get the actual situation for anyone with a treed lot in Edmonds right now: the rule that would have told a buyer about existing tree obligations is gone, and the rule defining which trees carry obligations at all is being rewritten with a target date of this coming October.

If you are selling a lot with mature trees

A few things are worth doing before you list, regardless of when your listing goes live.

• Pull your own permit history from the city rather than assuming your title search will show tree-related conditions. If you did any tree removal or replacement work between 2021 and October 2025, a notice may already be recorded on your title from that period, and it will need to be addressed at closing.
• If you have done tree work more recently, keep your own documentation of what was approved and what replacement or bonding obligations came with it. That paperwork will not surface automatically anymore.
• If your lot includes a tree at or near 30 inches in diameter, know that its protected status could tighten before your closing date if the city's rewrite lands as scheduled this fall.

If you are buying one

• Treat "clean title" as a starting point, not an answer, when a property has significant trees. Ask the listing agent directly whether any tree removal, replacement, or retention plans have been filed on the property, and request the permit file from the city rather than relying on the title company alone.
• If a mature tree is a selling point or a concern for you, get a sense of its diameter before you write an offer. Anything approaching the 30-inch landmark threshold is worth understanding now, not after closing.
• Build a little slack into your timeline if you are closing near a code change date. The city's public tree code update page tracks the current status of the rewrite.

FAQ

Does Edmonds still require a notice on title for protected trees? No. That requirement was removed from the code in October 2025. A notice recorded before that date still runs with the property until it is formally released, but new tree obligations are not being recorded the same way.

What counts as a landmark tree in Edmonds right now? Under the interim ordinance passed in April 2025, a landmark tree is one measuring 30 inches or more in diameter at 4.5 feet above the ground. Hazard and nuisance trees are excluded from the protection.

Is the tree code going to change again this year? Likely yes. As of the council's April 2026 discussion, staff were targeting a draft by July 2026 and a full council decision by October 2026. Anyone buying or selling a treed lot in Edmonds this year is transacting in the middle of that process, not after it.

Trees add real value to an Edmonds property, and they also add real questions that a standard closing checklist will not catch on its own. If you are weighing a purchase or a sale on a lot with mature trees anywhere from the bowl to the ravines above it, Mauri Tracy can walk through what to check before you write or accept an offer. Let's Connect.