Residents and business owners will soon have a chance to help fine-tune ideas to improve the look of 16th Street, a major gateway into the capital city.

The Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA) will lead a workshop on Tuesday, July 21, to share updated information on development activities and to collect input on streetscape elements to brighten 16th Street. Those upgrades will be part of a renaissance unfolding there, along with a surge in businesses such as Hot Italian, Mochi, Pronto and Starbuck's.

The ideas that are gathered will be used to help form a cohesive vision for the street. That vision and specific details will be incorporated into a $20,000 conceptual streetscape design that Berkeley landscape design and planning firm MIG is creating for the section from L to S streets, said Marc de la Vergne, CADA's development manager for the capitol area.

The design will build on the 16th Street Public Improvements Design Study crafted for the entire street in 1997 by CADA, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, the city and the state. That plan, which has been shared with MIG, provides relevant ideas but little detail, he said.

"It's serving as a jumping-off point for us," said de la Vergne. "We need more guidance than that study was able to provide."

The improvements will be part of an ongoing effort to upgrade the 16th Street corridor. The workshop is set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the CADA Event Center, 1322 O St.

Once part of State Highway 160, the one-way, three-lane thoroughfare is not expected to undergo any changes itself. Instead, the workshop and design will focus on upgrading sidewalk amenities for pedestrians, business and property owners, and commuters. Elements to be discussed include plantings, furniture, lighting, public art, sidewalk and crosswalk treatments, bus shelters and signs.

At the workshop, CADA will encourage discussion about installing bike lanes on 16th Street, although doing so would be challenging. CADA's primary concern is how to upgrade such a major thoroughfare.

"It's somewhat limiting in what you can do physically because it's such an important corridor," said de la Vergne. "Many of the improvements we're going to look at don't involve direct changes to the street itself. We're focusing more on sidewalks."

He and two others from CADA -- Todd Leon and Tom Kigar -- will make presentations about preliminary concepts and relevant 16th Street projects, including East End Gateway developments and light rail station improvements. Liz Lagomarsino from Friends of Fremont Park will discuss the community-based vision the organization is developing to make the park more fun, appealing and user-friendly.

CADA hopes the workshop will draw "people who feel 16th Street is an important location and want to have some input on what it looks like or what it could look like," said de la Vergne.

For more information about the workshop, contact Marc de la Vergne at 324-3913.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. She can be reached at 804-2856 or suzanne@sacramentopress.com.