CARLSBAD, Calif. _ A 15-foot wooden cross erected on a hilltop in a Carlsbad park violates city rules and must come down, city officials say.
Someone erected the cross without a permit about two weeks ago on city-owned land known as Veterans Park, an undeveloped area with miles of hiking trails that overlooks the Agua Hedionda Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean.
The city posted a warning notice on the cross Friday stating that it must be removed within 72 hours or city officials would take it down and place it in storage. No one had removed the fixture by Monday evening.
Who installed the wooden structure remains a mystery, but nearby residents agreed the cross should go.
"You can see it from some distance," said Tom Fitzpatrick, whose backyard has a view of the undeveloped park. As a religious symbol, the cross doesn't belong on public property, he added.
"The separation of church and state is a good thing," Fitzpatrick said.
He said he discussed the subject with some of his neighbors and they shared the same philosophy.
"Someone else made the point that a cross means different things to different people," he said.
"I grew up in a household where it meant something positive," Fitzpatrick said. But to some people, especially those of other faiths, the cross doesn't hold the same meaning.
Freedom of religion means "not imposing one particular viewpoint on society," he said.
The cross went up near the spot where an American flag had been on display last month. The flag was installed by Carlsbad resident David Walker just before Sept. 11 to honor veterans and people killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks, his wife Charlene said.
Walker was out of town Monday and unavailable for comment, but Charlene Walker said he didn't put up the cross.
"My husband is all about the flag," she said. "The cross is something completely different. The flag is for everybody. The two do not go hand in hand."
A city official said the cross will be removed because it was erected without a permit, not because of its religious symbolism.
"It's not uncommon for people to place things on city property," said Kristina Ray, the city's communications director. "The important thing for us is that we treat them all the same. We don't leave it or remove it based on content."
Fitzpatrick said he doesn't want the Carlsbad situation to turn into anything like what happened with the Mount Soledad cross, a 40-foot-tall, 20-ton concrete symbol on what was formerly San Diego city property in La Jolla.
A complaint initiated in 1989 against the Mount Soledad cross launched a 25-year legal battle that ended only after a volunteer association raised $1.4 million to purchase the property and make it a private memorial.
