Tree Removal and Trimming in Berwyn, IL
Section 1028.17 of the Berwyn code is headed “Arborist license required; fee; bond.” Under it, no person shall engage in the business or occupation of pruning, treating or removing street trees or park trees in the city without first procuring a license. That is not a landscaping license with trees tacked on. It is a license for this trade by its own name. Very little of Cook County bothers to issue one. So any tree removal Berwyn homeowners commission on a street or park tree runs through it. Ask whoever quotes you whether they hold one.
Chapters 1028 And 1030
Berwyn’s tree law lives in two chapters. Chapter 1028, “Trees and Shrubs,” covers 1028.01 to 1028.18 plus the penalty at 1028.99. Chapter 1030 is narrower and oddly specific: “Tree Removal and Sewer Rodding in Parkways,” sections 1030.01 to 1030.05. A whole chapter exists because roots and sewer lines meet under Berwyn parkways more often than anyone would like.
Section 1028.18 is the backbone. It requires the city to keep an approved Urban Forest Management Plan. It also requires at least one certified arborist on staff, and a tree inventory “reinventoried every 5-7 years.” All work must comply with ANSI A300. The same section makes it unlawful to remove or injure a tree without first obtaining a Tree Permit. That covers any procedure causing death or substantial damage. Section 1028.07 addresses topping, and 1028.16 covers permits for work. The ISA’s homeowner guidance sets out what an A300 pruning cut should look like.
A $2,000 Day
The penalty separates Berwyn from its neighbors. Section 1028.99 routes to 202.99. The fine there is “not more than $2,000 for each and every violation thereof, and every day the violation continues shall constitute a separate offense.” Nearby villages cap at $200 or $750. Berwyn does not.
The code controls waste handling too. Section 1060.10 bars anyone from collecting landscape waste in the city. The exceptions are a scavenger licence or a landscape business, and then only as an incidental service.
Licensing in Berwyn. Under 1028.17 the arborist licence fee goes to the City Collector annually in advance. Public service companies and city employees are exempt. The code requires liability insurance “in the minimum amounts prescribed by the city.” But the city publishes no dollar fee, no bond and no insurance limit anywhere we can cite. Ring the Collector’s Office on 708-788-2660 to confirm current figures.
A City With No Floodplain At All
Berwyn is 3.90 square miles, every acre of it dry land. Roughly 57,240 people live here, at 14,662 per square mile. The hazard annex states that the city has no floodplains and no mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas. It classifies Berwyn as a Non-Special Flood Hazard Area. There is no river and no creek. Two properties carry repetitive-loss status, and none are severe. Nearly every neighbor in this stretch of Cook County has a watercourse problem. Berwyn’s trees simply do not.
Tree Removal Berwyn On Bungalow Lots
Their problem is soil volume instead. Housing here is primarily 1920s construction. Berwyn holds what has been called the most significant collection of Chicago-style bungalows in the nation. One story, basement and attic, two to three bedrooms, block after block of well-built brick.
Bungalow lots are narrow. The setbacks are shallow, and the parkway strip is the only real rooting ground on the street. A century-old tree working with that little soil sits under permanent stress. That is why Chapter 1030 exists. It is also why the work here is a rigging problem as much as a cutting one.
The city incorporated on 6 June 1908. The Illinois Legislature established Berwyn Township in 1922, one of the few coterminous townships in the state. Roosevelt Road, Ogden Avenue — Route 66 — and Cermak Road carry the traffic. The railroad splits the city in half. MacNeal Hospital occupies a five-story structure from the 1920s. Berwyn has been a Tree City USA since 1986. The city runs an annual parkway tree program with an interactive inventory map.
Berwyn Services
- Removals from bungalow side yards and gangways where there is no room to drop anything
- Pruning to ANSI A300, which the city’s own 1028.18 requires
- Stump grinding around the sewer laterals Chapter 1030 was written about
- Emergency response, day or night, anywhere in the city
Storm damage. ComEd is responsible for cutting, trimming or removing trees or branches causing service interruptions. But the city notes that ComEd does not trim the service wire outside emergencies. Residents can ring 1-800-EDISON-1 on weekdays and have a service wire de-energized at no charge. You still have to dispose of branches and logs from your own storm-damaged trees. So we haul ours out.
Pricing A Tree Removal Berwyn Job
Access usually decides the number here. Tell us whether there is gangway room, alley access or neither. We will tell you honestly what the rigging adds. Estimates are free.
Call 708-424-5885. More across Cook County, including Riverside, Cicero and Oak Park.
19253 South Blackhawk Parkway #80
Mokena, Illinois 60448
708-424-5885
Inquiries@protreeservice.com
Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week