Tree Service in Berkeley, IL

Berkeley’s code names the species you are not allowed to put back. Section 14-11-3 prohibits silver maple, box elder, ash, elm, willow and cottonwood as parkway trees. If the tree failing in front of your house is one of those, replanting the same thing is not an option here — and a tree service Berkeley homeowners can rely on will say so before the saw comes out, not after.

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The Parkway Rules In Berkeley

Title 14, Chapter 11 of the village code governs tree protection, landscaping and parkway grading. Beyond the banned species list, 14-11-3 requires parkway trees in all subdivisions where public utilities do not exist, planted not less than four feet from any sidewalk or curb, at least one per lot and two on corner lots, balled and burlapped, with a minimum trunk diameter of 2.5 inches measured six inches above ground. Planting is a condition of getting a certificate of occupancy.

Title 8, Chapter 3 covers the rest. Section 8-3-3 puts the superintendent of public works, assisted by a village forester or arborist, in charge of planting, maintenance and removal on public streets and parkways. Section 8-3-5 adopts ANSI Z133.1 — the arboricultural safety standard — by reference, with copies on file with the village clerk; the ISA’s homeowner guidance sets out in plain terms what that standard asks of a crew. Section 8-3-2 defines the parkway as the strip between the back of curb and the nearest property line.

For development work, 14-11-1 reaches healthy trees of four inches diameter or greater measured six inches above ground level; if the preservation plan is inadequate, the land development permit does not issue.

What A 1908 Subdivision Looks Like In 2026

Berkeley’s first residential subdivisions went in around 1908 and 1914–15, and then the village tripled after the war — 1,882 people in 1950 to 5,792 in 1960. That is two distinct planting generations in one small village of 1.4 square miles.

What it means on the ground: the older streets near St. Charles Road carry trees that have had a century to get large, while the post-war streets carry a cohort planted within a few years of each other and now hitting the end of their span within a few years of each other too. When a whole block’s trees start declining at once, that is not coincidence. It is a planting date.

What We Do Here

• Removals of the species the village will not let you replant — ash, elm, silver maple, box elder
• Pruning on the century-old stock along the older streets, worked to ANSI standards
• Stump grinding deep enough that a replacement tree has somewhere to go
• Emergency and storm work, any hour

Get A Tree Service Berkeley Quote

Give us the address and tell us what the tree is doing. If it is a parkway tree we will tell you it is the village’s call, not yours, before anyone talks price. Species matters here too, so say what it is if you know — half the tree service Berkeley asks us for turns on whether the tree can legally go back. Free estimates, seven days.

Call 708-424-5885. More of our Cook County coverage, and nearby: Northlake, Hillside.