After a lengthy legal struggle over a big cross in a Bay Area community, the city decided to pay more than $1.5 million to end the conflict.
For more than 50 years, the 28-foot-lit steel and plexiglass Albany Hill Cross stood watch over the city of Albany and the East Bay of San Francisco. The Albany Lions Club, a local community service organization, claims that because Christians had been dragging crosses up the hill every Easter for years, the cross had been placed on the original landowner’s private property for the benefit of the neighborhood. Later, the city purchased the surrounding area, which was then turned into a public park. The original landowner granted the Albany Lions Club an easement to maintain the cross before sale.
A federal judge declared that the cross was unconstitutional after a local atheist group objected to the religious symbol in a public park. In 2023, the cross was removed when the city council decided to use eminent domain to obtain the easement instead of selling it to the Albany Lions Club. But the Albany Lions Club persisted in battling the city over the easement issue and the removal of the cross.
At its October 7 city council meeting, the city declared that it had reached a settlement to put an end to the ongoing litigation. The settlement would give the Albany Lions Club legal title to the entire land in exchange for more than $1.5 million.
“In order to prevent further litigation costs, the City agreed to a judgment with the Lions Club to terminate the continuing dispute. For the benefit of the Lions Club, this ruling permits the City to condemn the easement and remove the cross that was already there on Albany Hill Park. The city of Albany declared that $500,000 of the $1,530,000 required under the judgment to be paid to the Lions Club for the purchase of their property interest had already been set aside with the State Condemnation Fund.
“Additionally, the judgment fully resolves any claims the Lions Club may have had regarding the City’s removal of the cross gives the City legal title to the entirety of the property, and completely clears title of the easement that previously existed on the Park.”
“This resolves the matter, and therefore, the Lions Club has no legal right to use the property for the easement or to maintain the cross on the property, which the City has already removed,” said the statement.
Kevin Pope, president of the Albany Lions Club, told Fox News Digital that the city “exercised poor judgment” in handling the long-running conflict.
The Albany City Council’s misguided decision to use public funds to compel the permanent removal of the Christian cross from Albany Hill saddens and infuriates me. “This was not the way it had to be,” he remarked.
Pope questioned if the decision was a prudent use of the city’s “dwindling resources” and blasted the city for spending “more than $1.5 million to tear down the cross,” rather than simply selling a tiny piece of the land to The Albany Lions Club so the cross could stay on private property.
Many people now perceive Albany as a town that is intolerant of religious beliefs. There is a ‘exodus’ of people from California for that and numerous other reasons, according to data,” Pope stated.
For those who follow Jesus Christ, the cross is everything; it represents God’s immense love for everyone, not just Christians, but all people of all races, religions, ethnicities, sexes, and other characteristics. all of us, regardless of our belief in God. Pope cited 1 Corinthians 1:18 when he remarked, “He still loves us.”
