After more than a decade of planning and millions spent to build a memorial near the National Mall honoring the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a key lawmaker who has helped oversee the project from the start is stepping away.

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran has resigned from the Eisenhower Memorial Commission as the panel votes Wednesday on how to move forward after years of controversy over the design.

Moran quietly submitted his resignation last week. A spokeswoman says he concluded that including homage to Ike’s home state of Kansas has become a stumbling block for architect Frank Gehry’s design for the memorial park.

Gehry proposed a memorial park with statues of Ike as president and as World War II general. A large metal tapestry would depict the Kansas landscape of Eisenhower’s boyhood home.

Eisenhower’s family has opposed the tapestry concept and called for a simpler design. Critics have mounted a campaign against the design that has delayed the project for years now.