COSTA MESA

The controversy over a possible 19th Street bridge was squelched before major debate got started at this week’s West Side Specific Plan workshop.

A small group of residents who support a bridge at the end of 19th Street showed up in force at the meeting, carrying placards that read “A Bridge to the Beach Makes Sense” and “We Want the Bridge.” Bob Graham, a founding member of the group 19th to the Beach, said he believed the group’s input had been ignored during the public outreach process for the West Side Specific Plan.

But Woodie Tescher of EIP, the firm that developed the plan, told Graham and the public that his company had been instructed by the City Council to prepare the plan with the assumption the bridge would not be built.