Answered for Sheridan, Hamilton County.
The cambium — the living layer just under the bark that builds new wood and moves food down to the roots — was killed in that patch, and the tree is now conducting around a dead strip. A narrow strip gets grown over in a few seasons and leaves a scar. A strip that wraps far enough around leaves the tree partly girdled, and the crown above it thins as the remaining live tissue gets overloaded. Either way the exposed wood becomes an open invitation to borers and canker fungi that would not touch intact bark. In Sheridan — Maple Run, Sheridan Estates and Spicewood Garden Apartments (rental complex) included, that's normally a tree trimming job at $250–$1,400. Not urgent.
The comprehensive plan, citing the 2007-2011 American Community Survey, puts the median year built at 1969, so the in-town core is mid-century and older and its shade trees are well over the rooflines. A permit spike in 2005-2007 and newer platting at Maple Run mean the edges of town carry nursery stock under 25 years old.
Community Park is singled out in the town's comprehensive plan for its numerous old-growth trees, and the pre-1970 residential grid around it carries matching full-size shade trees. New subdivisions plant only from the UDO's approved street-tree list — columnar Norway and hedge maples, black gum, disease-resistant Asian elm hybrids, European and American hornbeam, male "Autumn Gold" ginkgo and golden rain tree — a list that pointedly contains no ash and no Callery pear.
No permit is required for a homeowner to take down a tree on a private lot. Sheridan's tree rules sit in the 2025 Unified Development Ordinance and apply at development time: tree preservation plans must accompany site plans, no disturbance is allowed inside the critical root zone of a preserved tree, protective barriers must stand at the dripline through construction, and if a tree designated for preservation dies within five years of project completion the owner must replace it with equal preservation value within 180 days.
The UDO defines right-of-way as land dedicated or deeded to a governmental entity and under the control of a public agency. Street trees are required inside the right-of-way on new local streets in residential major subdivisions, planted in a minimum eight-foot strip between curb and sidewalk at roughly one every 50 feet — and maintenance of those street trees falls on the HOA, or, where no HOA exists, on the owner of the adjacent lot.
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Distance measured from Sheridan.