A part of the defining character of Mililani Mauka — its towering Cook pines — was chopped down along the community’s main thoroughfare by a homeowners association because of safety and liability concerns.
The Kumelewai Court townhouse association said it paid close to $50,000 for a 2013 arborist’s report, the past removal of four trees and this week’s cutting down of about three dozen more near Mililani Mauka’s entryway at Meheula Parkway and Ainamakua Drive.
Tree-trimming crews Friday morning tackled the last eight of the big pines — some more than 100 feet tall — on Kumelewai Court’s corner of the intersection.
Developer Castle & Cooke planted hundreds of the pines decades ago along Meheula Parkway to add ambience to Mililani Mauka. The other three corners of the intersection remain populated by the tall conifers.
Kumelewai Court said it was conveyed the streetside land with the trees in 1991. Castle & Cooke retained maintenance of the landscaping for years after that as it continued to sell homes in the community, it said.
But the developer said it informed Kumelewai Court several months ago that it no longer would maintain the pines on the townhouse parkway land.
"What was happening was, because (Castle & Cooke) is returning it back to us, we didn’t want the liability of the trees," said association board member Michael Wong. "That’s what it all comes down to: the liability of what if a tree falls."
Association President Phil Brouillet said in an email that after noticing tall pines elsewhere along Meheula Parkway either were being removed or falling down, the board decided to hire an arborist to look at its trees.
The 2013 arborist’s report recommended the removal of four healthy Cook pines because they were "growing in areas too narrow" for the species, and as the trees continued to grow, structural damage to an adjacent wall was likely to occur, Brouillet said.
As a result of safety concerns that a tree might fall on a home or on Meheula Parkway, the board decided to have the trees cut down, Brouillet said.
Marti Townsend, executive director of the Outdoor Circle, a nonprofit environmental group, said it’s "quite disappointing that the fear of ‘what if’ dictates so much of our decision-making."
"They are perfectly healthy trees (being cut down), and they provide so much (in) environmental services," Townsend said. "There’s the aesthetic beauty, but there’s also the carbon sequestration, they help replenish the aquifer there and they provide shade."
Unfortunately, "we have allowed sort of the bogeyman of liability to dictate our decision-making about the fate of these trees," she added. Townsend said the pines are "the key feature there — the defining tree of Mililani."
Garret Matsunami, director of engineering for Castle & Cooke, said the hundreds of pines planted in Mililani that are on parkway lands are either owned or being transferred to a variety of entities including homeowner associations, developers and the Mililani Town Association, which handles community management for Mililani Town and Mililani Mauka.
David O’Neal, MTA’s general manager, said the cut-down trees are not on its property, and the community association has "no comment on the removal of those trees."
"Regarding trees in general, I think the public is not aware of all the problems trees cause," he said in an email. "Trees are planted too close to roads, too close to walls, too close to homes, and damage property and become safety issues."
However, O’Neal said "MTA has no plans to remove any trees along Meheula in Mauka or Mililani Town. We will address any tree on our land if it becomes a safety issue or is damaging property (after consulting with an arborist). Our normal policy is when we remove a tree along roadways and in neighborhoods, we will replace it with either a like tree or a tree better suited for the location."
Matsunami said MTA previously took down some pines at the intersection of Kamehameha Highway and Lanikuhana Avenue in Mililani Town.
"Those were tall also, and those were rotten, if I’m not mistaken," he said.
Matsunami also agreed the pines are a defining characteristic of the community.
"That’s what makes Mililani Mililani, right? It looks really nice," he said.
