Oh, and here are some pictures of where the new tree will go.

Sugar maples are having problems and never were completely perfect for situations in developed areas, you might want to leave that off the list. What about a Freeman maple instead?

Is the area where you plan on planting the tree near the grass island with the stop sign?

If so it seems like what ever you put in there, eventually, it and the power lines are going to be competing. It is a fact that the trees loose in these situations.

Also being in central Indiana, I suspect that in the winter the snow plows create some rather large piles of snow on that corner also, which would be detrimental to any thing you plant there. Finally don't forget the salt.

You don't say exactly what part of central Indiana you are talking about but I know it can very from very rural to very urban. If it is in a semi rural area how will the road be changing in the next 5 to 10 years? four lanes road? turn lanes? More power lines?

If the basic idea is to protect the parking lot form cars missing the intersections. have you thought about creating a berm between the lot and the road. You could then plant the berm with all kinds of small bushes, and flowering plants and bushes, plus creating a barrier between the road and the parking lot. Would be a nice place for the churches sign.

Have you though of put in lilacs or some other type of large bushes in this area. Some varieties of crab apples may also work.

If the other trees are going into the strip between the parking lot and the church, then any flower tree would look very nice.

krnuttle, lots of really great suggestions here. Let me add some more details. Basically we are replacing the tree that is in those photos. I expect to plant as close to the same exact spot as roots and stump allow after removal. I believe the desire here is to add a shade tree that's why I added some of the larger trees. The power lines are an important factor thanks for pointing that out, luckly they are further than they appear in the pic. probably 30+ ft. so it's still tight but not dreadful. that's a good point on road changes. the road to the east, second pic, has zoning to be 4 lane, the parking lot and existing trees are already positioned to take that into account. I suppose if the county actually widens the road that could harm roots on trees and put them at risk for salt spray. so honey locust seems like a really good choice given its tolerance for that. I'll have to check on the others. I like the idea of flowing trees. I'll check and see if that would be desirable. I can think of a whole other list of 5 from that category.

I'm thinking the salt spray might be a really important factor here and that I should limit the options only to species with at least moderate salt spray tolerance. This eliminates tulip-tree and the maple. Also I looked at the power lines more closely today and they are much farther than they look in the pictures, farther even than what I was thinking they were. I think they are probably 40 to 50 ft from the existing tree. So I'm thinking that's on a significant factor. Does that seem reasonable?

With that in mind I'm thinking I'll update the list as follows.

1. Black Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica)

2. Thornless Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos inermis)

3. Zelkova Serrata

4. Spruce 4a (Blue Spruce) 4b (Norway Spruce)

5. American Sycamore (Plantus Occidentalus)

I do have some reservation about the sycamore. Seems to be a very large tree. Root interference with the pavement and branch interference with the power lines seems like a concern with a tree that large.

I looked up a number of smaller flowering trees but downy serviceberry was the only one I could come up with that's tolerant of salt spray. So that could be a consideration.

Does this seem reasonable to everyone?

Rather than Sycamore, how about Planetree? Exclamation (aka Morton Circle) and Ovation (aka Morton Euclid) are both excellent disease resistant varieties and better behaved (smaller for starters) then Sycamore.

Yeah, plane tree looks like it could be a really good option. Any other good salt spray tolerant trees I should consider?

Possibly Ulmus parvifolia (Chinese Elm)?

usda 5b to 10a, moderately salt tolerant. Beautiful tree.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://tucsoncleanandbeautiful.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Ulmus-parvifolia-Chinese-elm-1.jpg&imgrefurl=https://tucsoncleanandbeautiful.org/product/chinese-elm/&h=496&w=496&tbnid=aLsJhSXLGAxd-M:&q=chinese+elm+tree&tbnh=186&tbnw=186&usg=__D98BX10p4vHApvEUSspbilvO7S8%3D&vet=10ahUKEwjnxpykgJHcAhWCm4MKHSL6BG0Q_B0I_gEwEg..i&docid=0K4dQR-j_PAvvM&itg=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnxpykgJHcAhWCm4MKHSL6BG0Q_B0I_gEwEg

That's a good suggestion too. I haven't looked into it much but it did cross my mind so I was reading up on it today. Looks like it really is a beautiful tree. I did find a few reviewers who said it was a bit of an allergen, does anyone know about that?

What's the distance from the tree to the light pole? A large, wide spreading tree like honeylocust might interfere with the light eventually. Do you have the right soil conditions for blackgum? If you go with zelkova, Green Vase (upright vase shape) or Musashino (wide columnar) are probably best. If you go with Chinese elm, Allee is probably best. If you go with planetree, Exclamation is best (Ovation not likely available, Bloodgood prone to disease issues).

Well the light pole is about 20 to 25 ft from the current Ash tree. As you can see the ash is growing into the pole, so that's a good point. As far as the soil for blackgum does it require something extra special? I was thinking it prefers wet conditions but has some drought tolerance.

As for as the blue spruce, maybe i should check on the fir, I was just thinking the Norway was a good option since they are both spruce.

Blackgum prefers acidic soil and may not perform very well in the higher pH clay that I'm guessing you may have at your location.

I deleted the suggestion about the fir since you need salt spray tolerance. But there are blue cultivars of both white and Norway spruce (they may be hard to find and pricey) if they like the color of blue spruce.

Ok, that's an important consideration and I don't know the answer. I"ll just make a note of it and maybe one of the others will know. Thanks!

Well I have a cheap soil ph probe tester (emphasis on cheap). I stuck it in the ground in several places around where the new tree will be planted. The gauge dropped slightly below 7. So assuming the probe isn't off by one or something like that it seems like soil is slightly acidic. That should suffice for the Black Gum shouldn't it?