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The 20-foot-tall cross perched atop Albany Hill Park for more than five decades may have been illuminated for the last time on Easter after the city declared it finally needs to go.

The city says it wants the cross removed from its park to allay constitutional concerns about separation of church and state, address residents’ resentment about one religion being given preference over others and free up more public park space.

But the Albany Lions Club, which has traditionally lit up the welded steel and plexiglass cross every Easter Sunday and Christmas week, isn’t about to hoist it away without a fight.

The showdown came to a head last month when the City Council decided to acquire the private easement that has allowed the Lions Club cross on city property. Hubert “Red” Call, a Lions Club member and councilman who had the cross installed in 1971, set up the easement before selling his land to a developer, who later gave the property to the city in 1973 to use as a park.

In an interview explaining his vote, Councilmember Aaron Tiedemann said, “A city has core responsibilities — providing police, fire, basic services, road paving — but this sort of thing is also part of what is, I think, increasingly becoming something that every city is asked to grapple with: things from our past that may have come about due to some very weird and unique situations, that we need to correct and people want us to.”

Tiedemann, who grew up in Albany, said people have long complained about the cross for a litany of reasons: it symbolizes a preference of one religion over others, offends the city’s diverse communities, is reminiscent of KKK cross-burnings in the East Bay hills decades ago, and presents an eyesore.

“It kind of looms over Albany, and as people noted in that meeting, it has some disturbing racial overtones and it’s also just inappropriate for the city to own a religious symbol like that,” Tiedemann said.

This isn’t the first time the cross has come under public scrutiny.

In 2015, groups such as the East Bay Atheists and the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent letters to the city demanding its removal.

In doing so, they also pointed out the power line that runs up the hill to light the cross posed a fire danger. When PG&E cut off electricity to the line at Albany’s request, the Lions Club sued the city in 2017, claiming the shutdown was “part of a harassment campaign to force the cross off the hill.” According to court documents, PG&E replaced the line before restoring power.

And in June 2018, a federal judge ruled the cross violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment because governments are forbidden from promoting one religion over another. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision in December 2019.

As required through the eminent domain process, the city plans to compensate the Lions Club for the private easement to take over the land beneath the cross.

But Robert Nichols, a Lions Club member serving as the group’s attorney, said a go-away check isn’t what the organization wants. Nichols and retired attorney Richard Covert have tried to convince the city that its best and least expensive option is to just sell the plot underlying the cross to the Lions Club so it would become private property, thus making all the debates about how public land should be used moot.

“The city must act fairly, and the city cannot act in a fashion that would be prejudicial to the Christian cross for the benefit of other religions or for atheistic purposes,” Nichols told the council.

“Consequently, the best interest of the city is saving itself what would be well over $750,000, as your appraiser estimates, and there will be attorney fees and costs added on top of that,” he added. “I think each member of this council can think of better things to do with $750,000 to $1 million.”

Nichols told this news organization a compromise with the city isn’t off the table, but the Lions Club will push to keep the cross where it is or be compensated for its relocation, even if that results in fighting the city in court.

Councilmember Rochelle Nason said that selling land to the Lions Club “doesn’t really solve the problem. “What we’re trying to do is achieve a park that’s appropriate for everybody to enjoy.”

Scott Ditfurth, a private lawyer who works with the City Attorney’s Office, agrees that selling the land to the Lions Club would skirt constitutional issues. That’s the approach some other cities have taken.

In 1997, for example, San Francisco resolved a lawsuit against it over a 103-foot-tall cross on Mount Davidson by selling the land under it to a local nonprofit organization that planned to maintain it as a memorial for Armenians who died during the Ottoman Empire.

But Ditfurth assured the council that eminent domain is a legal option because it aligns with Albany’s goal of creating more public space.

“(The Lions Club) simply wants to maintain the cross there and have the city sell them a plot of land,” Ditfurth said, “and that’s just not something that the city is required to do.”

In addition to dozens of public comments submitted before the council meeting supporting the cross’ removal — including some from a few Christian ministers — more than a dozen public speakers criticized the Lions Club’s stance.

Brigid Acuña, who lives near Albany Hill, suggested the club’s refusal to resolve the issue without taking legal action goes against the charity’s purpose, which includes serving the community without any financial reward or debate about partisan politics and sectarian religion.

Nichols said that argument isn’t valid because the Lions Club is merely defending itself against the City Council’s action.

But Larry Hicok, coordinator of the East Bay Atheists, said the fundamental issue is that past city administrators have long offended non-Christians and supporters of diversity by endorsing this Christian cross.

“Now the club states that ending this privilege by eminent domain proceedings … is somehow reverse discrimination,” Hicok said. “In fact, it is long-delayed justice.”

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