Port Sets Course for Shore : Waterfront: The agency has long suffered from poor design judgment, but adhering to a proposed city ordinance could make the area a nicer place for all San Diegans.

As the overseer of 33 miles of San Diego shoreline, the San Diego Unified Port District controls a good hunk of prime downtown real estate. On the edge of San Diego Bay, which wraps downtown with a prime natural resource, the port controls most major properties.

Financially, the port has to be considered one of San Diego’s real estate success stories. But, when it comes to urban design, especially respect for street-level views of the waterfront and easy pedestrian access to the bay, the port has a poor track record. Entering a decade during which the vast majority of undeveloped port land on San Diego Bay stands a good chance of being developed, this lack of concern for good urban design is a major cause for concern.

Projects such as the twin-towered Marriott Hotel next to the downtown convention center and the Hyatt Hotel now under construction next to it point to some of the port’s mistakes.

Taken as a whole, the convention center, the Marriott Hotel with its clumsy, massive base, and the imposing, industrial-looking complex connecting the two projects present an unbroken bayfront barrier that stretches for roughly 1/4-mile. Downtown pedestrians can’t see the waterfront, nor can they easily reach 22 acres of port-financed public parks and walkways behind them.

The $125-million, 38-story Hyatt Hotel designed by the San Francisco office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill will be insensitive to pedestrians approaching the waterfront from downtown. The tower itself, with a distinctive, tapering top, promises to be one of San Diego’s best. But the most visible feature for foot travelers will be a 70-foot-high parking garage looming in front of the hotel: another waterfront blockade.

In an effort to get public agencies and major landholders--especially the port and the Navy--to work with the city and to move other public and private entities toward sensitive waterfront development, the San Diego Assn. of Governments organized the Broadway Complex Coordinating Group in 1988. Port Commissioner Dan Larsen was part of the group.

Last year, the group approved the 26-page document on Central Bayfront Design Principles, and these have since been incorporated into a Preliminary Centre City San Diego Community Plan and accompanying Development and Design Ordinance. The plan is undergoing an environmental impact review and should be ready for discussion and adoption by the San Diego City Council in 1991.

Here’s how the preliminary community plan describes the future of the waterfront:

“A mix of public and private development will add activities and entertainment (an aquarium, an amphitheater, a fisherman’s wharf, a museum?), create landscaped park areas and wide public promenades, while sensitive planning provides easy pedestrian access to the waterfront and preserves the spectacular citywide views of San Diego Bay.”

The design ordinance would require parking spaces to be “enclosed in a structure. All such parking structures shall be architecturally integrated and encapsulated into the development.” The ordinance would also require parking to be buffered by residential, retail and other uses--people attractions to soften their impact.

Design recommendations for maintaining waterfront views and pedestrian access are spelled out. And the community plan prescribes “a higher degree of architectural detail and quality . . . within the waterfront,” recommending light-colored, high-quality materials, building walls with a variety of interesting shapes, minimal use of reflective glass and ground floors that appeal to pedestrians through the use of architectural detailing, catchy storefront designs, arcades and awnings.

As a basic rule, the city wants the tallest high-rises built along Broadway, with buildings decreasing in height closer to the waterfront. This idea was first broached by San Diego city planners in the 1960s, but the city has consistently undercut its own rhetoric, most recently with several waterfront high-rises approved for sites along Harbor Drive.

Under the city’s plans, the port would play a key role in creating several large public plazas downtown: one at the foot of Broadway, another park or plaza on the waterfront at the foot of 5th and 6th avenues. These streets are all seen by city planners as symbolic links between San Diego’s prime public resources: Balboa Park and the waterfront.

The city’s new design ideas are sound, but the city has no official power to make the port follow them. When the state of California passed legislation in 1962 creating the Port District, it gave the port local planning autonomy. Aside from lacking any official influence, city of San Diego officials may be reluctant to press the port on design issues for another reason: the city often asks the port to share its financial largess on projects like the port-funded $165-million convention center. City officials are often nervous about ruining their chances for additional financial help.

Last year, annual port revenues reached $71 million, including $32 million from the airport alone. A good portion of its money has gone into the convention center, along with such worthy projects as the landscaped pedestrian path along Harbor Drive between the airport and the County Administration Center. But financial generosity doesn’t excuse bad design.

In the 1990s, several new projects on port-controlled properties will set the tone of the waterfront for years to come, and the port needs to exercise a new awareness of sound urban design principles.

Among the projects in the works:

* Possible expansion of the convention center at the foot of 5th and 6th avenues.

* A $125-million, 38-story Hyatt Hotel now under construction between the convention center and Seaport Village on Harbor Drive.

* Expansion of Seaport Village to the north beginning next year, more than doubling the shopping center’s size.

* Development of the 12-acre Lane Field at the foot of Broadway, possibly with a hotel.

* Development, probably not for several years, of prime waterfront land now occupied by Solar Turbines along Harbor Drive between Grape and Laurel Streets.

* Expansion and improvement of the airport, now on hold while governmental agencies decide whether it should be relocated.

The city’s proposed downtown community plan and urban design ordinance contain detailed ideas that could make the waterfront a much nicer place for all San Diegans. Passed on to developers interested in building on port land, these design and planning concepts could vastly improve port projects without detracting from their financial viability. Regardless of whatever politics have come between the city and port over the years, the port would render a great public service--after all, that’s its state-mandated mission--by voluntarily adhering to the city’s standards and seeking tighter control of the design of waterfront projects.