Not every tree removal job in Atlanta shows up as its own arborist permit. A meaningful share of tree work happens as a side effect of a larger construction or renovation project -- flagged only by a single question buried inside that project's Building or Planning application. Missing that second signal means missing leads that never had a dedicated tree permit to find in the first place.
The most direct signal is a permit whose own type is explicitly an arborist or tree-removal permit. These are the clearest, most obvious tree-removal leads -- someone applied specifically to remove a tree, with no ambiguity about the nature of the work.
This is the less obvious source, and it's where a lot of real leads live. Atlanta's Building and Planning application forms each ask their own version of a tree-impact question -- Building asks "Will trees be destroyed?", Planning asks a differently-worded question about anticipated impact to or removal of healthy trees. Neither of these applications is a tree permit -- they're regular construction or development applications that happen to ask about tree impact along the way. A "yes" or even a "potential" answer on either one is a genuine signal, even though the permit itself might be for a deck, a new house, or a commercial development with no mention of "arborist" anywhere in its type.
When the Planning application's answer is "Potential" rather than a firm yes, that's still treated as a real lead, not filtered out. A project that might need tree removal is an earlier, often less-competitive opportunity than one where the decision's already been made -- there's more time to make contact before the work gets finalized. The trade-off is accepting an occasional false positive in exchange for not missing a genuine one.
On the dashboard, the Tree Removal filter combines both signals into one view -- dedicated arborist permits alongside Building and Planning applications flagged by their tree-impact question -- so a lead doesn't get missed just because it was never filed as its own arborist permit.
This specific two-signal system -- dedicated permits plus a derived question from the application form -- is built around how Atlanta's permit data is structured. Gwinnett County tree removal leads are tracked too, but through a different mechanism, since Gwinnett exposes tree-related information through permit conditions rather than an application-form question. Worth knowing if you're specifically comparing how the two jurisdictions are covered.
Two things: a permit whose type is explicitly an arborist or tree-removal permit, or a Building or Planning application that answered its tree-impact question with "yes" or "potential," even if the permit itself is for something else entirely, like a new home or a commercial build.
Because Atlanta's Building and Planning applications ask about tree impact as part of the standard application, regardless of what the project actually is. A new construction or renovation project that will affect trees gets flagged this way, even though it was never filed as a tree-removal permit.
It means the applicant indicated tree removal might happen, without committing to a firm yes. Stamptd treats this as a real lead rather than filtering it out, since it's often an earlier-stage, less-competitive opportunity than a project where the decision is already final.
Gwinnett tree removal leads are tracked too, but through a different signal -- permit conditions, rather than an application-form question -- since that's how tree-related information actually appears in Gwinnett's data.