South Holland, IL Tree Service

Most codes measure a tree at chest height. South Holland measures at ankle height, and that decision makes its rule far stricter than it looks. Section 6-272 says “no existing tree taller than twenty (20) feet or larger than four (4) inches in diameter measured six (6) inches above the ground shall be removed except when approved.” Six inches above grade is where a trunk flares widest. A tree measuring three inches at breast height can measure well over four down there. Assume the rule covers most of your yard. And the tree removal South Holland approves starts with a tape held where you would never think to put it.

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The Private-Tree Rule Lives In The Building Code

That is the trap. Homeowners look up Chapter 19, “Trees and Shrubs,” find it deals with village property, and conclude they are free. The private standard is elsewhere — Chapter 6, “Buildings and Building Regulations,” Article X, “Landscaping,” at section 6-272. It also sets replacement. Taking out a tree of 4 to 12 inches requires two replacements. Thirteen to 25 inches requires four. Twenty-six inches and over requires six. A fence goes around the dripline during work. The Morton Arboretum is the sensible place to choose those replacements from. Section 6-267 adds parkway planting at one tree per 45 feet of frontage.

Even so, Chapter 19 is the most complete forestry apparatus in the corridor. It creates a Village Arborist under 19-4. That arborist must maintain an Urban Forestry Plan with “a minimum 5-year outlook.” They must also keep an Arboricultural Specifications Manual, and publish its revisions in a newspaper “one (1) weekday of each of four consecutive weeks.” Section 19-3 adds a Tree Commission.

Permits, Insurance, And The Tree Removal South Holland Approves

Section 19-5 permits anything on or overhanging village property, down to attaching a rope or a poster. The arborist must act within seven days and a permit is good for thirty. It carries an insurance requirement where anyone but the owner fells a private tree “likely to fall on village property.” The figures are “one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00) per person, three hundred dollars ($300.00) per accident for bodily injury liability and fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) aggregate for property damage liability.” We quote that $300.00 exactly as printed. It almost certainly means $300,000, but we flag it rather than correct it. Nuisance trees on private ground get thirty days under 19-6, and penalties under 19-8 cap at $200 per offense.

Low Prairie, Onion Sets And A Grid Three Blocks Out

Immigrants from South Holland in the Netherlands settled here in 1846. They called the ground “de Laage Prairie” — Low Prairie. It was accurate then and it is accurate now. By the 1940s it was the Onion Set Capital of the World. A municipal park preserves the Widow Paarlberg farm that inspired Edna Ferber’s So Big. One quirk trips up every visiting contractor. Addresses run three blocks ahead of Chicago’s grid. So the sign on what would be 159th Street reads 162nd.

The suburb went up fast after the war, from roughly 3,200 residents in 1950 to almost 25,000 by 1980. That is a canopy that went in inside three decades, and it is now all of an age. The tree removal South Holland is signing off on today is mostly that generation.

Low Prairie still floods. Twenty-two properties sit on the repetitive-loss list, plus one severe repetitive-loss house. Five years earlier the counts were fourteen and none. The 100-year floodplain covers 463.84 acres and the 500-year 977.73. The named streets run long. Elm, Cherry, Park Lane and Maple. Then 170th between Cottage Grove and Parkside, East 160th Place at University, and the 162nd and Wausau overpass. Also 173rd and Dodson, and Thorn Ditch. Properties along the Little Calumet River and Thorn Creek flood, and 2008 set the record. The village also records that “The high winds also blew down tree limbs, power lines and signs.” Tree City USA status has held from 2010 through 2023.

Tree Removal South Holland: Our Services

• Removals approved under 6-272, measured where the village measures
• Pruning under the seven-day, thirty-day permit rhythm 19-5 sets
• Stump grinding leaving room for the two, four or six replacements 6-272 requires
• Emergency and storm work from Thorn Ditch to the Little Calumet

Ask For A Tree Removal South Holland Figure

Before anything comes down here, we measure at six inches. Then we tell you whether you need approval, and how many replacement trees the section will ask for. Better to know at the estimate than at the inspection. No charge to find out.

Call 708-424-5885. See our Cook County coverage, and nearby: Lansing, Thornton.