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It began, simply and uncontroversially, as a plan by state road engineers to redesign and rebuild six deteriorated blocks of Biscayne Boulevard at the northern end of downtown Miami.

But what seemed a mundane chore has provoked a collision between the state and the city. And the future of Miami's troubled downtown may hang in the balance.

What happens along those six blocks from the Port of Miami entrance to the Interstate 395 overpass, city officials say, will help make or break the city's ambitious plans to revitalize derelict Bicentennial Park and transform the downtown waterfront into a vibrant, walkable urban neighborhood.

It all boils down to this question: Should the redesign be engineered for people in cars or people on foot?

The Florida Department of Transportation, which controls the road and the $6 million budget for the job, says that patch of Biscayne is plagued by rush-hour backups that will only worsen once downtown redevelopment achieves full bloom.

SEEKING EFFICIENCY

The Transportation Department wants what traffic engineers are trained to build -- an efficient thoroughfare that speedily funnels cars and trucks into and out of downtown.

But speeding vehicles along Bicentennial Park and the waterfront, aghast city officials say, is the last thing a downtown struggling to attract street life needs.

Their alternative: An avenue of slow-moving traffic and broad tree-shaded sidewalks and medians that invite people to cross the boulevard, to take a stroll in the park or linger at an open-air cafe.

''We have one last chance to get it right,'' said City Commissioner Johnny Winton, whose district encompasses downtown. ``We don't want it to be about traffic capacity. We want it to be about quality of life.''

The Department of Transportation has temporarily put the brakes on its plan while it considers an alternate drawn up for the city's Community Redevelopment Agency by Dover Kohl & Partners, a South Miami urban design firm with a national reputation for planning successful neotraditional pedestrian-first town centers.

AWAITING ANALYSIS

Transportation Department officials have said they would adopt the city's plan if an engineering analysis underway determines that it provides for the required traffic capacity. An agency spokesman, however, cautioned that accommodating walkability and increased vehicle capacity may be tough.

''You can usually either increase capacity or have pedestrian-friendly design, one or the other,'' said David Rosemond, a department spokesman. ``It's very difficult to do both.''

For the city, about to begin spending tens of millions of dollars to remake Bicentennial Park as a home to two museums, the question is far from academic.

City planners envision Biscayne Boulevard as a sort of grand foyer to a revitalized downtown, connecting -- not separating, as it now does -- the bayfront and the urban grid to the west.

CITY'S CRITICISM

The Department of Transportation's plan, they say, would only make things worse, erecting a barrier of fast-moving vehicles that would make reaching Bicentennial Park and the bay on foot, already a hazardous enterprise, all but impossible.

If that happens, Winton said, you may as well kiss Bicentennial Park goodbye -- and with it the hope of weaving together a lively cultural, entertainment and residential neighborhood out of the park, the burgeoning nightclub district across the boulevard and the Performing Arts Center under construction to the north.

''People won't walk down there if cars are driving 45 miles an hour on Biscayne Boulevard,'' Winton said. ``And you might as well forget about redoing Bicentennial Park. Nobody's ever going to be able to get in there.''

City Commissioner Arthur Teele Jr., chairman of the agency steering the area's redevelopment, said he is prepared to push for the city to wrest control of that stretch of the boulevard from the state if the Transportation Department rejects the alternate plan.

Because Biscayne Boulevard is a federal road, U.S. 1, doing so would require a special bill in Congress.

HOPE IT WON'T HAPPEN

Both sides say they fervently hope it won't come to that.

''The department's position has been to work very diligently with the city,'' the Transportation Department's Rosemond said. 'We were halfway through our project, but we didn't have any qualms about saying, `Let's hold our horses.' ''

The Transportation Department's plan would accommodate a greater flow of traffic by taking out a chunk of AmericanAirlines Arena's frontage to realign the boulevard, which now curves east at that spot. It would create left-only lanes and a fourth through lane southbound, widen sidewalks and introduce landscaped islands along the center.

City officials and their consultants say the plan is flawed in several ways: It closes off most intersections at the median and provides few pedestrian crossings.

PEDESTRIAN HARBOR

The islands, which according to the Transportation Department range from 18 to 30 feet wide, would be too narrow to provide pedestrians secure or comfortable harbor while waiting to cross -- ''a piece of concrete where you have to balance like a bird,'' Dover Kohl designer Sergio Vazquez said.

The sidewalks on the west side would not be wide enough to accommodate cafe tables, and cars whizzing close by would in any case make them feel unwelcoming and unsafe, Vazquez said.

Teele and Winton contend the design was in part driven by the Miami Heat's desire for its VIPs, the holders of luxury boxes that pay much of the team's freight, to have easy access into the arena's parking garage -- a concern that officials for the basketball team's business operations raised at a recent public meeting.

''I challenged the Heat,'' Winton said. ``I want to create a livable, viable community downtown. Not a place where people are in a rush to park their car, then go flying out again and go home, but where they want to come an hour or two early, have a drink or some dinner and maybe stick around after the game.

``They're going to have more patrons that way over the long haul.''

Heat Group officials said they agree with Winton.

IT'S `GOOD BY US'

''Most of our patrons park west of the boulevard,'' said Eric Woolworth, president of business operations for the Heat Group. ``Anything that makes the boulevard more pedestrian-friendly, that makes the area more appealing, is good by us.''

The city says its plan strikes a balance that accommodates the needs of pedestrians and motorists alike.

Like the Transportation Department, the Dover Kohl plan would shift Biscayne slightly to the east. It would accommodate wider medians and sidewalks than the Transportation Department, however, by narrowing traffic lanes slightly and cutting a broad walkway into the edge of Bicentennial that would also function as a front entrance to the park.

LIGHT-RAIL PASSAGE

The medians at that point would be 40 feet across, wide enough to also one day accommodate a light-rail link from Miami Beach that is under consideration.

A key innovation is on the southbound side. The westernmost lane, paved in brick or some other distinctive finish, would allow on-street parking at off-peak times and convert to a through lane for rush-hour or event traffic.

On-street parking and trees next to the road slow traffic and help pedestrians feel protected from cars, Vazquez said. Merchants like it because it makes their businesses feel more accessible, he said.

Finally, to lure those restaurants, stores and cafes for pedestrians to walk to, the plan would establish design guidelines calling for ground-level retail spaces opening directly to the western-side sidewalk. New buildings would have low-rise facades on the street, with residential and commercial towers stepped back to provide a sense of human scale along the sidewalk.