Most homeowners hear “tree preservation ordinance” and assume they need permission to touch anything. In Woodridge that is not so, and the code says it in one line. Section 9-8-2 exempts “Lots containing existing single-family detached houses in residentially zoned districts” from the tree preservation plan entirely. So if you own a house here and the tree is in your yard, the preservation rules do not reach it. The tree service Woodridge residents actually need permission for is the tree out front.
Your Yard And The Parkway Are Two Different Places
The parkway is where Woodridge is strict, and rightly so. Section 7-4-3 makes it “unlawful to plant, place, trim, remove, treat, damage, cut, tap, carve, transplant” any tree in a public way “without having first obtained a permit therefor.” Furthermore, 7-4-7 lists topping by name. It is unlawful to “Attach to, injure, remove, prune, top, or otherwise damage any tree, shrub, or planting located within the public way.”
Section 7-4-1 explains why. The village “values its urban forest as infrastructure.” That is an unusual word to find in a code, and it is the right one. Meanwhile the public works director issues the permits, and 7-4-3 allows fourteen days to do it.
Two more specifics. Stump work on a public-way tree must leave nothing proud. Section 7-4-6 requires the stump “removed below the surface of the ground so that the top of the stump shall not project above the surface.” Then comes restoration: “four inches (4") of topsoil and seeded.” And 7-4-6 bars climbing irons on village trees “for any purpose other than removal of that tree or in an emergency.”
Where the preservation rules do bite. Build something and the calculus changes. Section 9-8-2 requires a tree preservation plan for subdivisions, rezonings, grading permits, and any building permit “that involves increasing the impervious area of any property by ten percent (10%) or more.” A qualifying tree starts at “six inches (6") in dbh” for deciduous stock, twelve feet in height for evergreens. Where replacements will not fit, the fee schedule sets the fee in lieu at “four hundred dollars ($400.00) per tree.” Planning a patio near a big oak? Ask us to measure before you draw it.
Tree Service Woodridge: What We Do Here
- Removals, with the 7-4-3 permit pulled first on anything in the right of way
- Pruning to the ISA and ANSI A300 standards that 7-4-1 and 7-4-6 both name
- Stump grinding, restored to the 7-4-6 topsoil-and-seed standard
- Emergency and storm work, sequenced by danger rather than by who called first
Section 7-4-6 also puts the hazard duty on the owner. Any limb over a public way that is “dead, decaying or broken and likely to fall” must be removed or trimmed by the property owner. Ignore a notice and the village can do the work “at the owner’s expense.” Therefore the cheap moment to deal with a leaning limb is before anyone writes you about it.
A Young Village On An Old Ridge
Woodridge is “named for its location in a wooded area above a steep hillside, locally known as ‘The Ridge,’ which overlooks the DuPage River’s East Branch and the Des Plaines Valley.” That elevation is not trivia. It is 758 feet, and the wind finds it.
The village incorporated in 1959 “with less than 500 residents,” and today holds 34,158 people across 9.79 square miles. Because “the vast majority of its homes, businesses, and churches” went up after the 1950s, most of this canopy went in the ground at roughly the same time. Consequently a great deal of it is reaching the same stage of life together.
Ash made that worse. The village reports that ash made up “over 20% of the Village owned inventory,” and that since its 2007 response plan “approximately 2,500 ash trees have been removed and 2,300 replaced.” After the tornado, the village counted “over 300 parkway trees that were lost” on top of that, with the Morton Arboretum donating a hundred more. In short, this canopy has taken two hits in twenty years.
Storm damage. If a wire is down or tangled in the tree, treat the whole area as live and keep everyone well back. Call 911 first, then ComEd at 1-800-334-7661. ComEd’s own guidance is blunt: “always assume a power line is energized and extremely dangerous.” We staff our line around the clock.
Tree City USA Since 1992
The village states it “has been the proud recipient of the Tree City U.S.A. award for every year since 1992.” Its Tree Share Program has cost-shared parkway trees with residents for just as long. A 1996 study put village-owned trees at over 8,000.
All of which is to say Woodridge takes its canopy seriously, and so does its code. If you want to know what a hazard assessment looks at before you call anyone, the ISA’s homeowner guidance sets it out plainly.
Get A Tree Service Woodridge Estimate
Send the address and tell us what the tree is doing. If you can reach the trunk with a tape at chest height, send the diameter too. That number tells us immediately whether a preservation plan is even in play. Estimates are free, seven days a week.
Call 708-424-5885 or request one online.
Woodridge sits mostly in DuPage County, with small portions in Will and Cook. See where we work in DuPage County. Nearby: Naperville, Downers Grove, Darien and Lisle.
19253 South Blackhawk Parkway #80
Mokena, Illinois 60448
708-424-5885
Inquiries@protreeservice.com
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