Waikele tree trimming stirs protest

By Jean Chow
Advertiser Staff Writer

An old conflict between business and nature has emerged anew, this time at Waikele Shopping Center, where management has been criticized for the severe trimming of trees so that merchants' signs can be seen better.

Trees in the Waikele Shopping Center, like the ones above, were trimmed to give more visibility to signs of businesses located at the center. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We started getting calls at the end of last month from shoppers and people who live in the area who were really upset about the trees being cut back as severely as they were," said Chris Snyder, project manager for the nonprofit environmental group. Trees that were full and blossoming were trimmed to sparse branches, she said.

A representative at Chaney, Brooks & Co., the locally owned property management company for Waikele Center, declined to comment.

Snyder said the conflict between trees and businesses is common, but believes that good solutions can be accomplished if people are educated about tree maintenance.

From the business perspective, visibility is seen as vital to encourage maximum customer traffic.

"When we had meetings with the management before, it was brought up as a concern by quite a few merchants that in certain situations you can't see the names of the stores, especially the smaller ones," said Michael Kwok, manager of Pasta Italia restaurant at Waikele. "Trimming the trees was a stategy (to solve that)."

Snyder said when the same thing happened around the same time last year, the center's maintenance personnel told her that the tree-trimming method was an attempt to raise the trees' canopies and increase the visibility of merchants' stores and signs.

Snyder said she provided the maintenance group some literature on proper tree-trimming methods and left it at that because most of the trees had already been trimmed and the job was nearly complete.

But when Snyder began receiving calls of concern again last month, she decided to contact Chaney, Brooks.

"They said they were just following instructions from their Mainland-based parent company and that it was out of their hands," said Snyder. She added that the representative she spoke to said Chaney, Brooks would handle the issue.

Last week, Snyder sent a letter of concern to Jamestown Management Corp. in Atlanta, parent company of Chaney, Brooks.

A representative from Jamestown Management could not be reached for comment.

According to Snyder, a certified arborist, said the way the trees at Waikele have been pruned may actually work against the goal of raising their canopies.

"A tree's response to severe trimming is emergency growth of water sprouts, which are like branches, so what you end up with is more canopy than when you originally started," she said.

Further, she said, "In my opinion, the ranking of signage as a higher priority than landscape misses the boat of trying to make the shopping center first-class."

"Waikele is really nice and has a lot of potential," Snyder said. "It's a shame not to maintain and promote (the trees') own health and natural form in a way that we get the greatest benefit."

Kwok agreed that the trimmed trees do not look as nice, but said the trimming "serves a practical purpose and the trees do grow back." He added that the trimming has been the same for the past four years and that he has never seen any adverse effects on the trees.

Snyder believes there are other ways to balance business visibility and proper tree maintenance.

"Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki is a good example," she said. "They're faced with the same type of challenge of raising the canopies of trees blocking the small boutiques, but the city has taken into consideration the natural growth rate of the trees and the trees have been given ample time to grow."

Kayleen Polichetti, vice president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, said the group occasionally gets calls from merchants with concerns about trees blocking visibility, but "those calls are incidental and not on a regular basis."

She added that the association works to increase foliage to create an environment that is pleasing to visitors and pedestrians, but also acceptable to merchants.