SAN DIEGO -- A proposal is in the works that could once and for all resolve the dispute over the cross on Mount Soledad, 10News reported.

Video

Council Takes Up Fate Of The Cross Keep The Cross?

The cross, the subject of a 15-year legal battle, would be taken down and moved to a church or other privately owned land under a tentative deal presented to the San Diego City Council.

The agreement has the support of the American Civil Liberties Union, the lawyer for the self-described atheist who filed the federal lawsuit and the Mount Soledad Association, which maintains the 43-foot-tall cross and a veterans memorial around it.

Federal courts have repeatedly ruled that the cross violates the California Constitution's "no preference clause," which prohibits religious symbols on public land.

"We get the state, the city in this case, out of the business of religion and move the cross to a private location. That's solves all the Constitutional problems and allows the people of the San Diego to still enjoy the cross," attorney Jim McElroy said.

The proposal would also let stand the memorial wall and plaques administered by the Mount Soledad Memorial Association.

"If they move the cross, the veteran walls would be preserved and those families who care about this and their veterans would be respected," said William J. Kellogg of the Mount Soledad Memorial Association.

However, not everybody agrees with proposal. Several veterans told 10News that the memorial wouldn't be the same without the cross.

"It's got nothing to do with God. It's a service memorial. It's like the USS Arizona," Army veteran Mike Earl said.

If city council does not approve the plan, the only other option is to reopen the bidding for the land underneath the cross, which McElroy said really is not an option.

"Litigation is inevitable, just inevitable. Our disagreements about how that sale would have to be structured," McElroy said.

In an exclusive 10News poll conducted by SurveyUSA, it found that 47 percent of San Diegans think the city council should continue to fight in court to keep the cross in place.

Thirty percent of San Diegans think the city council should try again to sell the land around the cross and 18 percent say the city council should accept the agreement to have the cross moved.