Joliet, IL Tree Protection: Parkway Planting (2026)

The parkway strip between the curb and the sidewalk is public property in Joliet, and the tree preservation ordinance treats it that way. Sec. 26-128(d)(6) makes it 'unlawful to plant any tree or shrub in the public right-of-way, or on other publicly owned property without prior written approval from the City of Joliet via a city issued permit under the jurisdiction of the city arborist,' so a resident can't put a new tree in the parkway in front of their house without that sign-off. Subsection (d)(7) adds a species restriction under utility lines: it's also unlawful to plant a tree there that's expected to grow tall enough to interfere with the wires, with acceptable species listed in the Urban Forest Management Plan.

Once a parkway tree exists, Sec. 26-128(e)(2) limits who may touch it: 'Only a certified arborist, or workers who are supervised by a certified arborist, may prune, and remove parkway trees,' following ANSI A300 standards and the International Society of Arboriculture's pruning best practices. Any planting the city itself does has to draw from the acceptable species list and follow a diversity cap: no more than thirty percent of any one family, twenty percent of any one genus, or ten percent of any one species citywide, under subsection (d)(1), so the parkway canopy doesn't concentrate risk in a single species the way Joliet's ash trees did during the emerald ash borer outbreak.