Answered for Franklin, Johnson County.
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. That context matters for kentucky coffeetree: the number one coffeetree call in central indiana comes in may, when the neighbors' maples are fully leafed out and this thing is still bare sticks — it is one of the last trees to leaf out and one of the first to drop, so healthy specimens get diagnosed as dead every spring. Removing a kentucky coffeetree around Franklin runs roughly $400–$1,900, and in Martin Place Historic District, Franklin Lakes and Knollwood Farms access is usually what decides where in that range you land.
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.
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).
Prune in late dormancy, and prune it young. The trap is that coffeetree has extremely coarse, sparse branching with no fine twigs to hide a mistake — a bad cut is visible for a decade because the tree does not backbud freely to fill the gap — and the narrow, upright cultivars sold for street use build codominant unions that need to be corrected at 3 to 5 inch caliper, not at 15.
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.
201 S Morton St, Franklin, IN 46131
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1251 U.S. Hwy 31 N, Greenwood, IN 46142
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8909 Chitwood Dr, Indianapolis, IN 46227
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5741 Gallagher Dr, Greenwood, IN 46142
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597 Shady Brook Hts, Greenwood, IN 46142
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Distance measured from Franklin.