Neighbor's crape myrtle root

[copper]

There is a corner of my yard that I want to plant a Japanese maple in, but I discovered when excavating the soil in the area that one of my neighbor's crape myrtles has a pretty substantial looking root in the way. I'm not sure what to do - should I pick another location for my tree (the backyard is tiny and this is pretty much the best location for it), remove the root or go ahead and plant my tree on top of it? I'm afraid that removing the root would damage the crape myrtle.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[The Helpful Gardener]

While it may damage the crape myrtle, you are well within your legal rights to chop it, and these are hardy plants that should bounce back. If it's not as big around as your wrist, I say chop it...

[grandpasrose]

Ditto! I have had to chop several large roots on my property over the years, and it does not seem to have damaged anything.