Bridge Over Troubled Cove : Historical district: The Crystal Cove Preservation Society calls a proposed project to restore a handmade walkway ‘demolition’; the state says it’s ‘reconstruction.’

Take a walk across the old wooden bridge and you are whisked back to an era when this entire coastline was a rugged retreat and time never seemed to leave a wrinkle in the sand.

Hand-built in the 1930s by beach residents who gathered debris and other wood fragments to form its trusses, the footbridge is the only path to reach the shores of Crystal Cove from the cottages in the park’s southern end.

But time has finally caught up with the little footbridge that spans a narrow, normally bone-dry creek.

Its flanks are slowly rotting away. Chunks of wood are gone, rusty nails poke out and its paint is peeling. State parks officials say crossing it can be a perilous activity and have banned its use, although that doesn’t stop residents from traversing it to reach this picturesque beach south of Corona del Mar.

Yet resurrection of this modest, 32-foot-long, yard-wide causeway has become a focal point of a brewing battle over preservation of Crystal Cove State Beach’s original structures, from its dirt roadways to its 70-year-old cottages.

The state Parks and Recreation Department has mounted an effort to restore the handmade bridge, but it cannot simply rip it out and build some sterile steel structure in its place. The Crystal Cove settlement is a national historical district--it is one of the only ones left on a California beach--and that means the state is required to retain the ambience of the 1930s.

The Crystal Cove Preservation Society, however, is opposing the bridge project and threatening legal action. The group is trying to save the 60-year-old landmark, contending the work would violate the parks department’s mandate to protect historical structures.

“They are totally destroying the bridge and disposing of it, calling it reconstruction when it’s actually demolition and replacement with brand new materials,” said Joseph O’Brien, a Costa Mesa attorney who represents the preservation group, composed of Crystal Cove residents as well as historical and environmental groups.

“Even if they did find it was unsafe, they could consider alternatives, such as putting a beam underneath it to support it,” he said. “It’s been there since the early 1930s and it blends in with the historic district.”

O’Brien said the Crystal Cove Preservation Society will try to block the project, which is tentatively scheduled to be discussed at a California Coastal Commission meeting next month. The project, because it is within yards of the ocean, requires a permit from the Coastal Commission. If the group fails to block it there, it will try for a restraining order by challenging the state’s environmental documentation, O’Brien said.

Jack Roggenbuck, a superintendent of the coastal Orange County district of the state Department of Parks and Recreation, was surprised by the opposition.

“Our intent is to maintain the integrity of the historical district for future generations,” Roggenbuck said. “The bridge makes up the ambience here. So we want to preserve that so people still have a sense of what it was like here in the 1930s.

“We are here to protect the natural, cultural and historic integrity of state lands,” he said. “We don’t tear down historic structures. That’s a no-no. But the bridge needs to be repaired.”

The Battle of the Bridge shouldn’t be surprising, since nothing happens at Crystal Cove--the last remnant of the way Orange County’s coastline looked and felt half a century ago--without stirring controversy. The breathtaking, valuable oceanfront land was purchased by the state from the Irvine Co. over a decade ago and protected as a park.

The $50,000 project to restore the bridge is only the first of a decade of controversial restoration and rebuilding projects that are expected at the state park. In that sense, the preservation group sees the bridge as its first crucial battle with the parks department in a war that could span most of the 1990s.

Next on the state’s schedule to be rebuilt is an auto bridge, which state officials say can’t handle the weight of heavy vehicles.

“Crystal Cove is the only historical district on the entire coastline that embodies a residential community. That is what the entire coast used to be like,” O’Brien said. “So you can understand how valuable it is as a resource. It’s how California used to be, but doesn’t exist anymore anywhere else.”

The dispute over Crystal Cove centers on what happens on this scenic strip of coastline after 1993.

About 45 cottages, many of them built in the 1920s, are in the state beach. They are leased by the state for about $700 per month to longtime Crystal Cove residents who rented them from the Irvine Co. before the sale.

But the leases expire at the end of 1993, when the state will evict the residents and turn the land over to the public. The parks department’s plans include some cabins to rent daily or weekly, perhaps a youth hostel, a diving center and some ranger residences.

State officials maintain that they are trying to be good stewards of the public’s land and say they are doing everything possible to keep the bridge’s original materials and design. Roggenbuck said reconstruction is the most cost-effective way to repair it and still maintain its historical look and integrity.

“It’s deteriorating on its own from insects and weathering,” Roggenbuck said. “We can let it sit out there and put a big fence around it so it doesn’t break and someone falls 8 feet down into the creek bed, but that doesn’t make sense. Repairing it is for the betterment of the public and the residents down there.”

Park officials said it poses a safety threat and have posted it as unsafe, yet the sign is covered with sandy footprints, a clear sign that residents use it anyway.

“It’s a very unstable structure right now, but people will use it no matter how big a danger sign we put up,” said John Kelso-Shelton, district superintendent at Crystal Cove State Beach.

Most of the structural wood has rotted so severely that it will be unusable in the reconstruction, Kelso-Shelton said. But whenever the builders find a sound beam or piece of railing, they save it to use in the new bridge. The wood that must be replaced will be substituted with materials that resemble the original parts, he said.

The Preservation Society, however, contends that no original materials will be left, making it an unlawful demolition, not repair. O’Brien also contends that the state parks department has not even proven the bridge is unsafe.

“We have a picture of 20 people standing on it with no signs of buckling or danger,” O’Brien said.

Roggenbuck, however, said he became worried about the dry-rot in the 8-foot-high bridge a year ago.

“I looked at it and said no way is that safe,” he said. “I’m trying to stop someone from getting hurt on it.”

Since then, the state has hired engineers, performed an environmental review and received approval from state historical officials, Kelso-Shelton said.

State officials say they will try to maintain the park’s historic integrity when changes are made in the cottages and other structures, projects that are at least several years away. They maintain that the state beach will never be trampled by crowds, since access is restricted to a few parking lots with room for only about 300 vehicles.

“I guess they’re making the bridge their symbol, and it’s unfortunate,” Roggenbuck said. “We’re not out there arbitrarily destroying structures. We’re refurbishing them in their same configuration, using like materials. We understand this is a special place, but we have to keep it safe for the public too.”

Bridge Battle Crystal Cove Historical District