Trustees Pass Tree Preservation Ordinance

The 16-month discussion of amending the Glen Ellyn tree preservation ordinance finally came to a close when trustees approved a modified ordinance at Monday night’s village board meeting.  

These modifications mainly streamline the existing ordinance with a few additions. Now neighbors will be alerted when an adjacent property is under construction, which could impact their trees. The permit process will be cut in half and appeals will also be brought before the village manager.

Not all trustees were on board with all the modifications, especially those impacting private property owners. Trustee Diane McGinley elected for the board to vote separately on each amendment impacting private trees because of a hang-up with previous wording.

As it stands, a resident files a tree preservation plan before construction. That plan identifies all the trees the resident would like to protect. The village forester then comes out, discusses how to protect the tree and puts up fencing restricting the removal of those trees. However, if construction plans change, and a protected tree needs to be removed, it’s now up to the forester to decide the fate of the tree—not the resident.

“You are no longer are able to control those trees on your property without the village forester’s approval. So now you’ve lost that right to maintain your own trees,” said McGinley.

Trustees Phil Hartweg and Peter Ladesic also voted no on the issue. President Mark Pfefferman was the deciding vote, overruling Hartweg, McGinley and Ladesic.  

Trustees decided to table the strictest of ordinances, which aimed to prevent clear-cutting of a property.  The trustees plan to revisit the clear-cutting ordinance and whether it should restrict the removal of trees from the setback, the “unbuildable” zone of a property.

It’s unclear when this issue will come before the board again.

Background:
In February 2010, the board decided to rethink the existing tree preservation ordinance. The goal was to enhance the preservation of trees in the village without further limiting the rights of property owners.

The environmental commission was charged with the task of coming up with some base recommendations that met the goal, in addition to “above and beyond” goals, which environmental commissioners would’ve preferred. The board of trustees looked at those recommendations along with village staff recommendations and decided to move forward with the staff’s suggestions for streamlining the ordinance.

The issue has come before the board and except for the clear-cutting provision, the issue was finally put to rest at Monday night’s meeting.