I must have misread your other thread Patio, Koi Pond Outdoor Kitchen Build in Houston and thought you planted the loquat from post 17. Like you, we have had to deal with existing plantings although we made the hard choice to remove three mature queen palms when we got two hard winters in a row in 13 and 14.
Ahh, no actually you read that right. We did plant it, but we did it as part of the patio project. We didn't have the pool design that time. So it was "existing" in the sense that when we chose the spot for the spa, the loquat was already there.
In hindsight I wish we had done a total design concept with the patio that included the pool. Would have saved us a few minor issues...
plat.