Westchester

Tree Removal in Westchester, IL

Westchester knows exactly how many trees it owns. A 2023 inventory counted 6,845 trees on public property plus 1,701 potential planting sites, mapped in GIS with a Tree Management Plan behind it. Very few villages this size have that. So when you call the village about a parkway tree, they can look it up. It also means the tree removal Westchester residents pay for stays cleanly separated from the work the village owns.

Get A Free Estimate

Which Side Of The Sidewalk Your Tree Is On

Chapter 7.112 of the village code, reenacted by Ordinance 2015-2109 in February 2015, sets it out. Section 7.112.060 makes the village responsible for planting, maintaining, removing and replacing trees on public property under the tree management plan. It also bars anyone from doing that work without village consent. Unauthorized plantings come out at the planter’s expense. Furthermore the same section requires certified arborists who meet the village’s contractor and insurance rules. It also lets the village require parkway trees to be trimmed once every five years on a rotating basis.

Section 7.112.070 requires a permit from the director of public works before any contractor or property owner removes a tree from a public place. That applies to construction and to any other reason. Moreover it makes anyone who damages a public tree liable for its replacement value.

Your own trees are different. Section 7.112.020 requires you to trim branches overhanging public areas to at least twelve feet of clearance. Then 7.112.030 requires removal of dead, decayed, diseased, broken or hazardous limbs or whole trees within thirty days of notice. Unpaid village costs become a lien filed with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds.

Two Rules That Catch Out Builders

Section 7.112.075 prohibits obstructing the root area of a public tree. Nobody may deposit, place, store or maintain stone, brick, sand, concrete or other materials that impede water, air and fertilizer reaching the roots. Meanwhile section 7.112.080 requires building owners to place guards around parkway trees during construction. So if you are having work done and the contractor is stacking material on the parkway, that is a village problem waiting to happen.

An Insull Town On Black-Soil Prairie

Samuel Insull bought the land in 1924 meaning to build an English-style town, and the Garfield Park rapid transit extension made it possible. However the line came out in 1951, and the expressways went in through the fifties instead. That history is why the street pattern here does not look like the grid towns east of it.

The other thing Westchester has is Wolf Road Prairie: eighty-five acres described as the largest black-soil prairie remnant east of the Mississippi. Black prairie soil is deep, heavy and slow-draining. Trees grow well in it and then hold water at the root plate through a wet spring. Consequently the failure pattern differs from the sandier ground further north. Most tree removal Westchester needs after a wind event comes off soil like that.

What We Handle In Westchester

• Removal of private trees — the ones the 6,845 inventory does not cover
• Trimming to the twelve-foot clearance 7.112.020 requires over public ways
• Additionally, stump grinding
• Clearing back lots and fence lines
• Storm and emergency work, 24 hours

Get A Tree Removal Westchester Estimate

Give us the address. If it turns out to be one of the village’s 6,845, we will tell you to call Public Works at 708-345-0041 instead of selling you something you do not need. Replanting on your own ground is your call, and the Morton Arboretum keeps species lists for heavy prairie soil.

708-424-5885 · Cook County service area · nearby: Hillside, Brookfield.