A towering Monterey Pine tree, standing tall at 32 feet, will be removed, an appeals court ruled this week, bringing an end to a heated argument in one of San Francisco‘s wealthiest neighbourhoods.

A state appeals court on Wednesday ordered a couple in the hilltop Pacific Heights neighbourhood to remove the tree. A neighbour debated that the tree was blocking her view of the San Francisco Bay and other city landmarks, local media reported.

The neighbour, an 81-year-old woman, had moved into the San Francisco home with her now-dead husband in 1976. The woman’s lawyer Barri Bonapart said that the couple decided to move in after they “saw the magnificent views”.

“You could see all the way from Marin Headlands, out to the Pacific Ocean, and then the Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, Sausalito, Belvedere, Tiburon and Angel Island,” Bonaparte said.

According to San Francisco Chronicle, the pine was planted by a resident who resided there before in 1999. By the time the case went to trial in 2019, it had grown dozens of feet tall with widening, thickly growing branches. The lawsuit was filed in 2018 after mediation failed.

The woman “tried everything she could to work with her neighbors to find a collaborative solution,” Bonapart said.

“Unfortunately, they were always adamant that they would never agree to restore her views unless they were ordered to.”

Before issuing a ruling to remove the pine in 2019, Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ross visited the site. He ruled that “the tree’s rapid growth in both height and breadth obstructs the views of landmarks and vistas that could once be seen.”

Upholding Ross’ order, the First District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that the only workable solution, in this case, was to remove the tree.

Pruning might have worked when the pine was smaller, but it has grown too much now to be thinned or topped in a way that would restore the view, Justice Ioanna Petrou said in the 3-0 ruling.

Under the ordinance, both households would share the costs of removal, which an arborist has estimated at $1,800.

(With inputs from Associated Press)