Palatine, IL Landscaping Rules: Tree Trimming (2026)

Palatine Village Code § 10-197 puts the trimming duty for overhanging vegetation on the abutting property owner: any tree or shrub that overhangs a sidewalk, roadway, or adjoining property so as to impede or interfere with traffic or travel must be trimmed by the owner of the abutting premises so that the obstruction ends within ten days of written notice from the public works director, mailed to the owner or the person in possession or control of the property; the same ten-day clock applies to any tree or limb that has become likely to fall on a public or private place, which the owner must then remove.

Section 10-199(c) places a parallel duty on utility pole and wire operators in the village: absent a different arrangement in a franchise agreement, they must keep their wires and poles free from and away from trees so far as possible and keep those trees properly trimmed, under the public works director's supervision, so that neither the poles or wires nor the trees are damaged by contact. Section 10-196 separately bans topping, defined as severely cutting back limbs to stubs larger than three inches in diameter within a tree's crown so as to remove its normal canopy and disfigure it, as a normal practice for topping any street tree, park tree, or other tree on public property; the public works director can exempt storm-damaged trees or trees growing under utility wires where other pruning methods are not practical.