Any landscapers or experience and advise would be appreciated. My question is I want to landscape a corner of my yard in town. If I cut the grass as short as I can. Would laying fabric on top of grass sod, work instead of removing the sod?? I want to plant a few trees and haul in crushed rock to place on top of fabric eventually.

Would I encounter any issue laying fabric right on top of grass??

Yes
Round up

Round up the grass then add "preen" to keep unwanted plants from growing.

You can lay a black tarp over the grass, I use recycled vinyl billboards....in 6 weeks that ground will be soft and friable, no grass, no weeds....or use a generic round up for faster results.

The vinyl billboards are cheap, and come in many sizes, practically indestructible and make good tarps too.

Fabric is a poor choice, it will work for awhile but weeds eventually root down through the fabric and then you have a mess..

So, is that the same as a trap?

They're a heavy duty vinyl "tarp"....check out "billboard vinyls .com

I just scalp the grass down as low as I can, dig the holes and plant. Then come in with 3-4 inches of quality aged shredded hardwood mulch from a reputable garden center. I buy it by the truckload. I don't trust the mulch that comes in a bag.
3-4 inches of tamped down mulch generally smothers scalped grass. I use a hard rake to tamp it down.

52Carl, what bad things are not to trust with mulch in a bag?

I will get some heavy traps and and won't use fabric. I have heavy fabric that came out of a private road that had it as a barrier for weeds. Thanks for the great advise.

Snowy, I've found the tarps kill everything except yellow nut sedge, looks dead but it comes back...longer time under the tarp might help...roundup only sets it back too, I don't care to use anything stronger.

Roundup, wait 2 weeks, Roundup again to make sure all is killed.

Hard to tell where it came from and if it has been aged properly. Probably some hillbilly superstition mixed in there too.
I can just look at and smell the bulk pile of mulch and tell you that it is right. Can't do that if its in a bag. Same goes with "topsoil".
I used the same garden center for years when I mulched for a living. They had a reputation of consistency of their bulk mulch.