Stickney, IL Tree Service

Every other village around here measures a tree by its trunk. Stickney measures it standing up. Section 90-61 states that “it shall be unlawful to remove or cut down any tree or shrub exceeding eight feet in height on private property without having first secured a permit therefor.” Eight feet is a shrub in most codes. Here it is the permit line. So the tree removal Stickney treats as ordinary yard clearance still needs paperwork. Most residents never think to ask.

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Article III And Twelve Banned Species

Chapter 90, “Vegetation,” carries Article III on trees and shrubs at 90-61 to 90-66. Alongside the eight-foot private rule, 90-61 requires a permit to plant in a public street or parkway. The same goes for removing a public tree. And any contractor doing that removal must hold a license and a bond.

Section 90-62 is the planting rulebook and it is restrictive. Trees go at least three feet from the outer sidewalk line. None goes less than eight feet from a crosswalk, intersecting street or alley. The code bans twelve species outright. They are Ailanthus, Mulberry, Catalpa, Osage Orange, Poplar, Willow, Box Elder, Chinese Elm, Moline Elm, American Elm, Lombardi Poplar and Ash. If the tree you are losing sits on that list, expect to replant something else. Ash sits on it. That is a fair summary of what a decade of borer did to tree removal Stickney absorbed. University of Illinois Extension still publishes the identification guides.

Owner Duties, And What Tree Removal Stickney Leaves To The Village

Section 90-63 puts a maintenance duty on owners. Trim branches overhanging sidewalks below eight feet. And “any tree or limb of a tree which has become likely to fall on or across any public way or place shall be removed by the owner.” The general penalty at 1-9 makes a violation a misdemeanor. The fine runs up to $1,000.00, with each day separate.

The division of labor is clear enough. The Village trims and removes on public ground, including parkways, at no cost to the resident. But Public Works can only work on public land. A private tree is the owner’s responsibility. Where Public Works cannot do the work, the Village calls in an Arborist.

Licensing, And A Bond The Code Contradicts Itself On

A Village Built On A Drained Lake

Stickney rose on what was once Mud Lake. That lake stretched from Harlem Avenue to Kedzie Avenue. It only began to recede after crews dug the Illinois and Michigan Canal. That is the most useful fact about tree roots here. The village stands on old lakebed that engineering drained, not nature. So the soil under a Stickney front yard behaves nothing like the soil three miles north.

The dry-on-paper record backs it up. FEMA lists zero repetitive-loss properties here. Yet the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s sewage treatment plant here is the world’s largest. A USGS gage sits on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal at Stickney. Water is everywhere around this village and almost never in its houses. What it does instead is sit in the soil column. So root systems here spread wide and shallow. And a wind event finds them.

In 1919 the place was still largely farmland with about 100 houses. Today it holds 7,110 people on 1.96 square miles. The stock runs 2,460 single-family dwellings, 853 apartment buildings and 1,276 condominiums. Much of it went up after the Second World War. It is landlocked, with forest preserve along the western edge at Harlem Avenue.

Tree Removal Stickney: Our Services

• Removals of anything over eight feet, and we sort the 90-61 permit before the saw comes out
• Trimming of sidewalk overhang below the eight-foot line 90-63 puts on the owner
• Stump grinding — note the village’s hauler will not take stumps with yard waste
• Emergency and storm work, twenty-four hours

Book A Tree Removal Stickney Visit

Tell us roughly how tall it is when you call. In this village that number decides whether a permit is involved, before anything else does. Free estimates, seven days.

Call 708-424-5885. See more of our Cook County coverage, or read about Berwyn and Lyons.