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 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. This one resolves it in the homeowner’s favor, and it is worth establishing where the line actually falls before you pay for a tree removal La Grange itself may be obliged to carry out.

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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 the clearances: branches trimmed to “a clear height of 12 feet above the surface of the street, alley, or highway…and a clear height of not less than ten feet over any sidewalk.” Twelve feet is higher than most neighbors ask.

Section 7-11-60 declares a tree infected with Dutch elm disease or emerald ash borer, or otherwise hazardous, a public nuisance the owner must remove within fourteen days of notice. Two weeks is not long to get a survey, a price and a crew — a good reason to look at a suspect ash before the notice arrives.

On public trees, 7-11-55 bars anyone from removing, destroying, breaking, cutting, defacing, trimming or in any manner injuring a tree, plant or shrub without written permission from the Village. Section 7-11-35 adds a detail worth knowing before a patio job: a written permit is needed to place stone or cement within four feet of a street or parkway tree trunk. Notably, Chapter 11 contains no removal permit for trees on private property. Section 7-11-15 makes anyone who “cuts down, digs up, severs, injures the bark of or destroys” a public tree liable for its replacement value, and 7-11-70 sets fines by the Village fine schedule; the dollar figures are not published 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, and 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,” which “will allow for staggered planting and re-growth of our urban forest.” It is a defensible strategy, and it has a consequence for residents: a large number of standing ash in varying condition, coming down over a long window rather than all at once. Private tree removal La Grange residents pay for is increasingly an ash that has run out of time, and University of Illinois Extension sets out what the late stages of borer damage look like on a standing tree. The village has been a Tree City USA for 36 years.

The ground here is flat and old. The village deviates from an elevation of 645 feet by at most ten feet across its 2.52 square miles, and Bluff Avenue on the east side marks the prehistoric shoreline of ancient Lake Chicago. Almost nowhere here drains by gravity in any interesting way, which is why 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, and the Central Business District. Seven properties carry repetitive-loss status, all single-family.

The La Grange Village Historic District, listed on the National Register on 8 August 1979, holds over a thousand buildings, mostly residences. Development began in the 1870s and nearly all of the district was built between then and 1930 — Prairie School, Queen Anne and Victorian houses, 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 and, if the tree is near the front line of the lot, 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.