Answered for Franklin, Johnson County.
The top of a tree is the far end of the supply line and the hardest place to push water to. When a tree cannot meet demand it abandons its most expensive real estate first, dying back from the top and from the outside in. So dieback that starts high is a message about the bottom of the tree. In most cases the trouble is in the roots or in the water-conducting tissue of the stem, not in the branches you are actually looking at. In Franklin — Martin Place Historic District, Franklin Lakes and Knollwood Farms included, that's normally a tree trimming job at $250–$1,400. Within weeks.
Platted in 1823 and incorporated as a city in 1861, Franklin has a genuinely old residential core — the Martin Place Historic District covers homes built roughly 1850-1935 in Italianate, Queen Anne, Foursquare and Craftsman styles. The bulk of the modern housing stock came in two waves: a heavy late-1990s subdivision run (Canary Creek Estates, Branigin Creek, Whispering Ponds, Knollwood Farms, Franklin Lakes) and a second 2009-2024 push (Cumberland Commons, Deer Meadows, Legends West, Bluffs at Youngs Creek).
Franklin is not among the 23 communities in the Indiana DNR street tree sample, so the two-tier picture here is inference from build dates rather than inventory: the pre-1935 blocks around Martin Place and the courthouse square carry the oldest, largest shade trees, while the late-1990s subdivision belt is now 25-30 years old and big enough that crowns are into rooflines and service drops. Ash is effectively gone to emerald ash borer, and the city Tree Board's approved street tree list governs what goes back into the right-of-way.
No permit is required to remove a tree in your own yard. Franklin's tree ordinance regulates STREET trees only: pruning, planting, treating, spraying or removing a street tree goes through a Tree Board permit, and topping is restricted. The ordinance's specific conditions — who may hold a removal permit, the trimming threshold, insurance and bond requirements and penalty terms — could not be verified from a retrievable source, so confirm them with the City before quoting right-of-way work.
The strip is the city's. Franklin's ordinance defines a street tree as one on real estate owned or controlled by the City, including anything in the public right-of-way, and an abutting owner may apply for a permit to plant or maintain a street tree at their own risk and expense. The ordinance is reported to treat trees within a set distance of the curb as city street trees where the right-of-way line cannot be determined — that presumption is unverified, so confirm the right-of-way line with the City before removing any tree near the curb.
201 S Morton St, Franklin, IN 46131
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1251 U.S. Hwy 31 N, Greenwood, IN 46142
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4035 E Stop 11 Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46237
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8909 Chitwood Dr, Indianapolis, IN 46227
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597 Shady Brook Hts, Greenwood, IN 46142
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Distance measured from Franklin.