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City Tells Property Owner To Stop Work At Site of Dead Tree

Driveway hold in the ground
Eric Stock
/
WGLT
The parkway along Washington Street where a honey locust tree once stood.

Turns out there’s still some life left in a long dispute over a dead tree.

The City of Bloomington on Tuesday ordered Greg Shepard to stop work on his new driveway at his Gray Ledges historic property on Washington Street near Mercer Avenue. The stop order was issued because Shepard's building permit for the new driveway expired Jan. 27, city spokesperson Nora Dukowitz said.

It’s the latest development in a dispute, first reported by GLT, that began in April. That's when city officials discovered that a once-healthy tree on the city-owned parkway outside Gray Ledges had died under mysterious conditions. Parks and Rec staff handed over a soil sample from the area that they said reeked of gasoline or diesel fuel. They suspected someone was trying to kill it by dumping fuel around its base.

Tree stump with a cone on top
Credit Ryan Denham / WGLT
/
WGLT
A cone sat on a stump in August where a dead tree was removed, outside the Gray Ledges historic property in Bloomington.

The city-owned honey locust tree—around 25 years old and worth around $8,500—has been a hot topic of conversation in the Founders’ Grove neighborhood. City officials say Shepard asked the city to remove it last year, though they declined because it was still healthy at that time.

It’s unclear why Shepard wanted the tree gone in the first place. Gray Ledges has undergone renovations in recent years, after Shepard bought it in 2015. The building permit was issued in July 2017 for a new driveway. That new driveway runs right into the area where the dead tree was removed.

The stop order was visible Tuesday morning on the parkway. An area about the size of a driveway is dug out in the parkway where the tree once stood.

GLT asked city officials Tuesday why the building permit was issued, if the new half-circle driveway would eventually cross paths with that tree.

“The site plan submitted with the building permit application did not illustrate a tree being located within the public right-of-way,” said Community Development Director Bob Mahrt said.

Police took custody of the soil sample but closed the case without action. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency was notified of the incident but is not investigating.

A message left with Shepard on Tuesday was not returned.

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Ryan Denham is the digital content director for WGLT.
Eric Stock is the News Director at WGLT. You can contact Eric at ejstoc1@ilstu.edu.
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