Preservationists have thrown a roadblock in front of plans to renovate the Hollywood Bowl and replace its historic band shell.

Seeking to prevent the destruction of a piece of Los Angeles history that has sheltered musical luminaries from Benny Goodman to the Beatles, two nonprofits filed a lawsuit against the county to stop the $17 million project in its tracks.

Hollywood Heritage and the Friends of the Santa Monica Mountains Parks and Seashore contend the county intentionally withheld environmental impact reports and neglected to consider the negative impacts of the project on the surrounding neighborhood.

The replacement plan would destroy an historic Hollywood landmark and exceeds the needs of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said Robert Nudelman, president of Hollywood Heritage, a 350-member preservation group.

“The whole thing is being done fraudulently from the top when they call it a rehabilitation of the shell,” Nudelman said. “This is a demolition.”

Whether the suit will succeed in slowing the project which has received strong support from the Philharmonic, the Bowl’s principal tenant remains to be seen.

County officials strongly refuted Nudelman’s allegations.

“We will be vigorously defending this lawsuit. The charges are without merit,” said Deputy County Counsel Helen Parker. No court dates have been set but Parker hopes to have the matter resolved before the scheduled start of construction. In the meantime, the two sides will be meeting as required by law to try to hash out a resolution to the dispute.

Joel Bellman, press deputy for County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the area around the Bowl and has been a leading proponent of the changes, said it was untrue that the county withheld environmental reports or attempted to deceive anyone.

“There is virtually no constituency against building the new shell except Nudelman and a small group of neighbors who think the Bowl is a nuisance,” Bellman said. “The shell is not the landmark, the Bowl is the landmark. In fact, it’s not even the original shell.”

Built in 1929, the current band shell was modeled after one created by architect Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright.