Answered for Greenwood, Johnson County.
The shelf is a fruiting body — the reproductive structure. The organism has been living inside the wood digesting it long before anything appeared on the outside. So the shelf is not the problem, it is the announcement. The practical translation is that there is a volume of decayed wood inside the trunk or the root collar, and the real job is establishing how much sound wood remains around it and whether that remaining shell is enough to hold the tree up. In Greenwood — Old Town Greenwood, Green Valley and Imperial Hills included, that's normally a hazardous tree removal job at $800–$5,000. Within weeks.
Greenwood is split between Duke Energy Indiana and Johnson County REMC (JCREMC). That split matters: the IURC's tree-trimming rules (170 IAC 4-9, from Cause No. 43663) bind only investor-owned utilities like Duke — two weeks' notice, no removing more than 25% of your tree and no topping without your permission, debris cleared within three days. JCREMC is a member-owned cooperative and is not covered by those rules; it runs its own trim rotation.
Two separate canopies in one city. The pre-1960 blocks around Old Town and near County Line Road hold Greenwood's only genuinely mature shade trees — just 9% of the housing stock predates 1960 — while the subdivisions east of I-65 are 2000s-era plantings still small enough to prune off a ladder. Ash is functionally gone: emerald ash borer has been confirmed in Indiana since April 2004 and is now in all 92 counties.
No permit is required to remove a tree on private property in Greenwood. Tree rules in the city code are all about new development and the public way: the UDO's landscaping standards require street trees along frontage and give credit for preserving existing large-caliper trees, separate provisions restrict planting in the public way, and the Stormwater Department's Easement Encroachment Permit is required before planting any tree or shrub inside an existing drainage or utility easement. The specific UDO section numbers and planting ratios could not be verified against the live code — confirm with Planning and the Stormwater Department. Cutting down your own backyard tree needs nothing.
The strip between sidewalk and street is public right-of-way. Greenwood's UDO governs where required street trees are placed relative to the curb and sidewalk, but that placement rule could not be confirmed against the live code, so check with the Planning Department before assuming a given curb-strip tree is the city's problem or yours. One exception worth knowing: County Line Road, Greenwood's northern boundary, is under the control of the City of Indianapolis, not Greenwood, per the city's own comprehensive plan.
1251 U.S. Hwy 31 N, Greenwood, IN 46142
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597 Shady Brook Hts, Greenwood, IN 46142
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5741 Gallagher Dr, Greenwood, IN 46142
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Distance measured from Greenwood.