Neighborhood Loses 187 Trees In One Morning; Residents Cry Foul

Laura Scholl came home from work one day, looked out her kitchen window and saw a totally different landscape from her backyard.

Between the time she’d left that morning at 7:30 a.m. and the time she arrived home at 1:30 p.m., a developer had cut down 187 of the 231 trees in the property behind her home on Sutton Drive. What had been a wooded view since she and her family moved into the home 15 years ago became, in just a few hours, an empty, bulldozer-ed expanse.

Scholl was shocked. She knew the plot of land at 3800 Dundee Road had been bought by a developer—a sign planted there advertised ranch-style homes coming soon to “Timber’s Edge”—but she wondered how trees could be taken down so quickly, and without any input from neighbors.

“These weren’t just little trees,” said Scholl. “I just thought, the timing, it just doesn’t make sense.”

She called the phone number listed on the sign, and found out that developer Steve Friedman, of KZF Development, had purchased the lot from the bank. He had a tree removal permit and planned to put 18 townhomes on the lot, he said.

Scholl next called the village to find out when KZF got its permit. After she filed a Freedom of Information Act, she learned that KZF was using the tree removal permit submitted by the prior property owner, EAG Capital. EAG, which had gone into foreclosure on the property, had originally submitted a tree removal plan to the village in 2006 for a 12-home development called Pine Knolls. But the company never touched the land and eventually went bankrupt.

After KZF brought the property from the bank, Friedman submitted the Pine Knolls tree removal—plan four years later, and for a different development—and the village approved it May 10. One day later, the trees came down.  

“I just can’t comprehend how somebody could have issued a permit under these circumstances,” Scholl told trustees at a board meeting Tuesday, May 24. “It was just an irresponsible decision.”

Development and Planning Services Director Tom Poupard said everything the developer and the village did was legal according to Northbrook’s municipal code, which includes a section devoted to tree removal and protection.

But, he said, he felt sympathy for Scholl and her neighbors, who came home one day to a torn-up field where once they saw nothing but trees. And more importantly, he thinks the tree removal code could use some re-thinking. The village has never encountered a situation like this one, he said. Typically, a developer comes in with a tree removal plan at the same time as he or she submits a specific construction plan. But in this case, KZF had only submitted a concept plan to the board for preliminary review.

Technically, said Poupard, the municipal code does not require a tree removal plan and approved development plan to come in hand in hand. If there will be construction going on, a construction protection plan is required, to ensure that trees will not be harmed. But in this case, there is no construction yet approved.   

Still, he said, “It just doesn’t feel quite right.”

And at Tuesday’s meeting, he told trustees the tree protection plan could use an audit. Most board members shared his sentiment.  

“I think the surprise factor weighs big here for the residents,” said Trustee James Karagianis.

“I just don’t like the idea of the lag time, and people not being able to voice their opinion,” said Trustee Kathrny Ciesla.

While KZF has submitted a preliminary concept plan to the village, the developer has yet to submit a formal plan. Friedman said he would like to do so in the next 60 days—but it would still be several months before the plan went through the standard process, which includes review by the Plan Commission and the village board as well as public hearings.

In the meantime, Poupard said the developer has 30 days from the time trees come down to submit a plan to the village for planting new trees, or to write a check for the trees that have come down.

“Our challenge right now is putting those trees in place where they can remain and not be torn out when the redevelopment begins,” said Poupard.

KZF has worked with the village on several housing developments over the last two decades, including Meadow Ridge and Royal Ridge on Techny Road and Park Place Estates on Voltz Road. Both Poupard and Scholl said they didn’t fault the developer—what was at issue was the municipal process.

“KZF does build a really good project,” said Scholl, who worked in real estate before her current job as a grant-writer for Glenview’s School District 34. So in the long-term, she said, she’s not too worried about her property values going down. In the short-term, however, she said that her neighbors may have a tough time selling.

“Right now, could I sell my house with this backyard?” she said, looking out over the muddy, torn-up field behind her property. “It would definitely take a hit.”

Despite the developer’s and the village’s assurances that the property will be developed and some trees replanted, Scholl says it won’t be the same. The tall ash, cedar, oak and elm behind her property were part of the reason she and her husband moved to Sutton Drive.

“We liked the older trees, we liked the whole atmosphere of it,” she said. “That’s why we chose to move to Northbrook.

The trees they’re going to put in there are going to be little sticks. I’ll never see, and my children will never see, trees like we had in our lifetime.”