For the past 52 years, a 28-foot cross has stood on Albany Hill overlooking California’s East Bay. The city had purchased the property on which the cross stands in 1970 and for several decades there weren’t any issues.

In 1973, the Albany Hill’s Lion’s Club was given an easement, that blocked access to the property, as part of the city’s purchase of the land.

With this access, the Lions Club faithfully lit the cross with lights at Easter and Christmas. And over the years church groups in the city would hold Easter celebrations at the cross.

In 2015, a group of atheists challenged the city stating that the cross should not be standing on city property, CBN reports. This ultimately resulted in a 2018 court ruling that the cross should be removed.

And in 2017, the city’s mayor joined the chorus by condemning the Lion’s Club’s decision to mark the 9/11 anniversary by lighting the cross stating it should not be used to honor religious or nationalistic occasions.

The woke city council now wanted the cross taken down but had a problem, they did not have permission to access the cross because of the easement.

At this point, the city had one of two choices.

They could sell the property to a private group, in this case, the Lion’s Club which offered to buy the land. Or they could use eminent domain and force the Lion’s Club to sell its easement, so the city could access the property and remove the cross.

Since the city council is spending other people’s money, it chose the most expensive route and decided to force the sale of property blocking access to the site.

In an interview with the Washington Times, Lion’s Club president, Kevin Pope summed the situation up the best.

“The City Council seem to hate what it represents, and rather than take an amount of money for the land and sell it to the Lions Club, they’ve decided to spend what we think is probably close to $1 million to resolve this issue, instead of doing the easy thing,” Pope told the Washington Times. “That’s how much they hate it.”

Though the Lion’s Club initiated court action challenging the eminent domain actions of the city, a judge authorized the city to remove the cross, which put it into storage in June.

READ: Cross Monument Removed by CA Town After 5 Decades: ‘They Hate It… Hate What It Represents’ AND Supporters fight to resurrect Albany Hill cross after city pulls down California landmark