‘Global Center’ Plan Unveiled for Presidio : Landmarks: Park Service gives details of $590-million proposal to address environmental problems and foster international cooperation. There is quick opposition in Congress.

The National Park Service has unveiled the details of its sweeping $590-million plan to convert the historic Presidio Army post here into a “global center” to address environmental problems and foster international cooperation.

In a break with traditional park management, the Park Service has called for leasing most of the post’s 510 historic buildings to private, nonprofit groups that would stage conferences, establish visitor centers, provide workshops and conduct scientific research.

Taking advantage of the Presidio’s spectacular location on the northern edge of San Francisco, the Park Service also would rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza to create a large new viewing area, knock down 300 buildings--including the seismically unsafe Letterman Army Medical Center--and restore bay-front wetlands and other native habitat.

“At this site of incomparable beauty and history, we can link our military past with a future full of promise and possibility,” the draft proposal says. “The transformation is inspired by a newly emerging definition of protection--one that recognizes that security is no longer based solely on political and military strength but on stewardship of the world’s human and physical resources through global cooperation.”

The long-awaited plan, made public over the past week, is an attempt by the Park Service to turn the Presidio into a world-class park in an era of federal budget cutbacks. Park planners hope that the new national park could someday pay its own way by leasing out buildings to a wide range of private groups.

But the plan quickly drew criticism from Republican members of Congress who have questioned whether the Park Service should be operating a park on such a grand scale and at a considerable cost to taxpayers in the short run.

“This is a very costly proposal,” said Jim Coon, a spokesman for Rep. John J. Duncan (R-Tenn.) “The reason we’re shutting down military bases across the country is because of our enormous debt. . . . The fact of the matter is, the National Park Service can’t afford to run the parks they have right now.”

Duncan, who nearly succeeded this summer in slashing federal funds for the Presidio planning effort, is expected to oppose the legislation needed for the plan to work. Instead, he would favor selling off some of the post’s assets to private operators or having San Francisco and the state run the Presidio park.

The possibility of losing the Presidio as a national park has prompted normally contentious San Francisco politicians to unify behind the Park Service plan.

“While we will continue to debate specific aspects of the plan presented by the National Park Service, I believe that the community must come together in supporting the ultimate goal of transforming this base into a park,” said San Francisco Supervisor Kevin Shelley.

With the vast number of buildings and the diverse features of the Presidio, planners have outlined a variety of uses designed to emphasize the post’s historic features and natural beauty. Main elements of the plan include:

* Demolition of more than 500 military housing units built in the 1950s. The area would be replanted with native vegetation.

* Restoration of a portion of historic Crissy Field. The clay airstrip would not be used by airplanes, but could be used for special events along San Francisco Bay.

* Cutting back the century-old Presidio forest to its original boundaries and replanting where necessary. About 70 acres overgrown by the forest would be replanted with native trees and shrubs.

* Creation of a health and science research center at the modern Letterman Army Institute of Research.

* Creation of conference centers at the campus-like Fort Winfield Scott and at the closed Public Health Service Hospital, which would be partially demolished and renovated.

The Presidio’s Main Post, long the hub of the base, would serve as the heart of the global center, offering programs that address “the most critical environmental, social and cultural challenges,” according to the draft plan.

The idea of the global center is somewhat vague, park planners acknowledged, because it will be shaped in part by the tenants that are chosen.

So far, only two tenants for the park have been chosen. One is the Sixth Army headquarters, which will stay when the rest of the Army leaves in September, 1994. The other is the Gorbachev Foundation, headed by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.