Cutting of tree root provokes land dispute
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
KANE'OHE — More than a dozen senior citizens lined the entry to Pohai Nani last week to protest the cutting of a major root of a stately tree, but the neighbor who severed the monkeypod said it was necessary to protect his property rights.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Some 17 seniors from Pohai Nani Good Samaritan Retirement Community sat in a line of chairs in front of a 25-foot-tall monkeypod tree that graces the entry to their home, holding signs that said "Save Our Tree." One of the major roots of the tree was sliced to allow a fence to be built, and they feared that the tree would die if any more roots were destroyed.
Isobel Gentner, front middle, and Jean Leoni, front left, and others from the Pohai Nani Good Samaritan Retirement Community hope to save the monkeypod tree in back from further damage after one of its roots was cut.
The tree is one of a pair on each side of the driveway into the hillside community. The entry includes an 844-square-foot triangular plot that was landscaped by Pohai Nani in 1999 with irises, impatiens and ferns.
However, the plot belongs to the neighboring property owned by Dale Fukada, a teacher at Castle High School.
"We're in the middle of a land dispute," Fukada said. "That's my property, and the Good Samaritan Society claims the land is theirs."
Fukada said he is building a wall around his property, extending an existing wall and fence surrounding his home to establish his ownership. To put in the wall, he said, he had to cut several roots of the tree to build a foundation. No more cuts will be made, he said.
Luann Foos, executive director for Pohai Nani, said she had hoped to stop Fukada from doing further damage to the tree and had spoken to him directly and through an attorney, offering to purchase the property.
Tension between Foos and Fukada is high. Fukada says he has lost sleep over the dispute; Foos says she is seeking legal advice.
Foos wanted all work stopped until the issue was settled, with the hope that Pohai Nani would acquire the land. Her main concern, she said, is for the tree and averting further damage.
"The residents don't want the tree to be hurt," she said. "An arborist said this was really bad but the tree can survive if nothing more is done."
The problems between the two neighbors started 12 years ago. Fukada said he put up a wall around part of his property and did not include the plot under dispute now. Both sides claim to have cared for the land for
20 years. Fukada said that he pointed out his boundary to Pohai Nani in 1993, but that in 1999 the retirement community landscaped the plot without his permission.
This year he decided to ensure his property rights and build a wall. Foos responded by saying Pohai Nani would make an offer to purchase but months passed and when the offer arrived it was insulting, Fukada said.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Their offer of $4 a square foot or $3,376, was far less than a conservative estimate of property value at about $20 a square foot, he said. But before the offer came, Fukuda said, there were threats of taking the land through legal action.
The owner of the land next to Pohai Nani had part of a large root of the monkeypod tree cut to allow a fence to be built. He says the fence is needed to protect his property rights.
"I resent this whole thing," Fukada said. "What did I do to them? Nothing. That's my land."
Foos said she believes Pohai Nani has taken care of the property for 20 years and may have a legal claim to it, but the organization did make an offer to purchase the property. She declined to reveal the price offered.
"There was an offer for the appraised value," Foos said. "I don't know what he expected."
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
