Tree Removal and Trimming in La Grange, IL

If part of your tree stands on public ground, La Grange picks up the bill. Section 7-11-50 is unusually direct. It reads: “The Village will be responsible for the trimming and removal of any tree or stump that is existing or growing on any area where private and public property meet so long as a portion of the tree or stump is located on public property.” Most codes make the boundary tree an argument. Instead, this one resolves it in the homeowner’s favor. So it is worth establishing where the line falls. That matters before you pay for a tree removal La Grange itself may owe you.

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Chapter 11 Duties, And Fourteen Days To Act

Title VII, Chapter 11 covers trees and shrubs from 7-11-1 to 7-11-70. Section 7-11-25 sets two clearances. Over the street, alley or highway, branches need “a clear height of 12 feet.” Over any sidewalk they need “a clear height of not less than ten feet.” In practice, twelve feet is higher than most neighbors ask.

Section 7-11-60 declares a hazardous tree a public nuisance. Dutch elm disease, emerald ash borer, or any other hazard triggers it. Then the owner must remove the tree within fourteen days of notice. Two weeks is not long to get a survey, a price and a crew. Consequently, a suspect ash is worth looking at before the notice arrives.

What The Code Forbids On Public Trees

Section 7-11-55 covers public trees. It lists the prohibited acts: removing, destroying, breaking, cutting, defacing, trimming, or injuring in any manner. The ban covers any tree, plant or shrub on public ground. Written permission from the Village is the only exception.

Before a patio job, note 7-11-35. You need a written permit to place stone or cement near a street or parkway tree. The trigger distance is four feet from the trunk. Notably, Chapter 11 contains no removal permit for trees on private property.

Section 7-11-15 sets the price of damage. Anyone who “cuts down, digs up, severs, injures the bark of or destroys” a public tree owes its replacement value. Meanwhile 7-11-70 sets fines by the Village fine schedule. However, the Village does not publish those figures in anything we can cite.

Two Thousand Ash And A Deliberate Decision Not To Cut Them

La Grange has approximately 2,000 ash trees in public parkways. Its emerald ash borer plan proposes no preemptive removals. The stated reasoning is to retain affected trees “until such time when declining health becomes evident and removal is required.” That approach, the plan says, “will allow for staggered planting and re-growth of our urban forest.”

It is a defensible strategy, and it has a consequence for residents. Specifically, a large number of standing ash in varying condition will come down over a long window. That is a slower curve than a mass removal. Private tree removal La Grange residents pay for is increasingly an ash that has run out of time. For what late-stage borer damage looks like on a standing tree, see University of Illinois Extension. The village has been a Tree City USA for 36 years.

The ground here is flat and old. Across its 2.52 square miles the village deviates from an elevation of 645 feet by at most ten feet. Bluff Avenue on the east side marks the prehistoric shoreline of ancient Lake Chicago. As a result, almost nowhere here drains by gravity in any interesting way. Consequently the flood record reads as a list of low points:

• La Grange Road between Plainfield Road and 55th Street
• Plainfield Road from Willow Springs Road to East Avenue
• The Central Business District

In addition, seven properties carry repetitive-loss status, all single-family.

The La Grange Village Historic District went on the National Register on August 8, 1979. It holds over a thousand buildings, mostly residences. Initially, development began in the 1870s. Builders finished nearly all of the district between then and 1930. The styles run to Prairie School, Queen Anne and Victorian, with several homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Tree Removal La Grange: Our Services

• Removals of declining ash, timed to the village’s staggered approach rather than in a panic
• Pruning to the twelve-foot street and ten-foot sidewalk clearances 7-11-25 requires
• Stump grinding, but check 7-11-50 first, because a straddling stump is the Village’s job
• Emergency and storm work over century-old rooflines, rigged rather than dropped

Ask Us About Tree Removal La Grange

Send the address. If the tree is near the front line of the lot, add a rough idea of where the sidewalk sits. Section 7-11-50 may take the whole job off your hands. Estimates are free either way.

Call 708-424-5885. More of our Cook County service area, including La Grange Park and Brookfield, Western Springs.