Palatine residents upset church razing trees, destroying views

Some Palatine residents returned home from work Wednesday to find their forestlike views had given way to the garbage bins and service garages lining the back of a strip mall.

St. Theresa Parish, which opened its doors on Benton Street in the 1950s, hired crews to chop down dozens of trees — some of them decades old — so that it can erect a six-foot-high chain-link fence around its property.

“This used to be a park setting with tree-lined streets, and now it looks like an industrial area,” said Brigitte Stewart, who for 37 years has lived in her Oak Street home just south of the church. “I was in tears.”

The trees, all of which were located on church property, provided a sound and sight barrier so that neighbors were shielded from the parish, a funeral home and the Palatine Plaza Shopping Center to the northeast. Neighbors also say they're now exposed to traffic on Northwest Highway, a four-lane corridor they never heard or saw in the past.

Parish operations manager Gail McCusker said the fence is needed in order to protect St. Theresa School students. She said the property, which includes adjacent ball fields, is a popular loitering spot for passers-by, some of them homeless.

“This was a church community decision for safety and health reasons,” McCusker said. “It's our property, and the security fence provides for the safety of children when they're out.”

Workers hired to do the work said much of what they removed was buckthorn, considered an invasive species that threatens native vegetation.

Residents including Stewart said just as upsetting as the razed trees is the lack of communication.

She said the neighborly thing to do would have been for church officials to send a letter and hold a meeting to discuss their plans. Stewart believes a compromise could have been reached that didn't result in the loss of so many trees.

She also hopes St. Theresa will plant some sort of shrubbery to partly hide the fence to help mitigate any negative effect on their property value.

“They didn't communicate with us and instead just did what they wanted to do,” Stewart said. “Before it was pleasant. It was quiet. You saw greenery and 100-year-old trees. Now, it's a Dumpster.”