It looks like a Podocarpus gracilior that's been previously hacked at. Look inside the foliage and see what the structure is like. You could have a professional lace it out regularly, but the natural growth habit of this tree is indeed dense and lolly-pop-like, and it gets very large in time, large enough to crack that wall behind it and the patio to its left.

It's a really beautiful, beautiful species, but it does get big, really big.

I think you nailed it. That looks like an accurate call to me. Thanks!

We bought the house as a short sale and most of the landscape was in pretty poor condition. Everything that was once probably really nice was either dying or terribly overgrown.

Thanks for the quick response.